Core Lithium Ltd. expects to sell between 200,000 and 250,000 tonnes per annum of fine lithium byproduct from its Finniss project in Australia's Northern Territory.

The company received expressions of interest from several parties for the potential sale of fine lithium, with indicative pricing between US$50 and US$75 per tonne.

The byproduct only incurs a low marginal increase in operating cost, as well as low transport cost as the project is located close to Port Darwin, according to the May 28 release.

Managing Director Stephen Biggins said that little extra work was needed to add significant revenue to the project via the sale of fine lithium, and off-take terms will be finalized in the coming months.

He further added that this will "materially improve" the economics of the project, which presently has a pretax net present value, discounted at 10%, of A$114 million and an 80% nominal internal rate of return, based on a recent definitive feasibility study.

As outlined in the study, the company is targeting production of 175,000 tonnes per annum of lithium concentrate from Finniss starting 2020.