The Keliber lithium project will comprise several mining areas, the Päiväneva concentrator, the lithium refinery in the Kokkola Industrial Park (Keliber lithium refinery) and auxiliary facilities at all sites.
The Keliber lithium project was designated as a ‘Strategic project’ by the European commission, confirming its strategic significance to Europe.
The Keliber lithium project’s advanced production process, which will be central to responsible and sustainable lithium production, involves mining, concentrating, heat treatment and hydrometallurgical refining. The entire process chain – from the mining of the ore to the production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide – will be managed by Keliber.
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The Keliber lithium refinery is under construction in the Kokkola Industrial Park, close by the Port of Kokkola, a world-class industrial and logistics hub that is strategically positioned to supply the growing European battery sector. Once in full-production, the refinery is expected to produce an estimated 15,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate annually.
Construction of the Keliber lithium refinery, started on 7 March 2023. The topping-out ceremony of the main building took place in January 2024. Construction of the Keliber lithium refinery was nearly completed by the end of 2024. Pre-commissioning activities for the refinery started in Q1 2025 and cold commissioning in June 2025.
Construction of the refinery, the longest lead time component of the Keliber project, will ensure optimal scheduling of the other key project components, ensuring the timeous ramp up of the project to deliver into and to capitalise on forecast looming lithium deficits and elevated lithium prices.
Once operational, the Keliber lithium refinery will use high temperatures to convert the crystal structure of the spodumene concentrate into β-spodumene, which will in turn be processed further using hydrometallurgical principles to yield lithium hydroxide.
The planned refining process will be based on soda leaching, which will help minimise any negative environmental effects of production by allowing for side stream optimisation. This state-of-the-art refining process was developed in collaboration with Metso.
The Päiväneva concentrator is under construction in the area of Päiväneva, close to the Syväjärvi and Rapasaari mines.
The concentrator is being built on the border of the municipalities of Kaustinen and Kronoby. The concentrator will have an estimated annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate, which will be transported 66 kilometres to the Keliber lithium refinery in the Kokkola Industrial Park.
Once the Päiväneva concentrator has been constructed and commissioned, the concentrating enrichment process will begin with the crushing and milling of the ore mined. This will be followed by flotation. The resultant flotation concentrate (spodumene) will then be transferred to the Keliber lithium refinery for further processing and refining.
Earthworks and selected infrastructure works commenced at the Päiväneva concentrator and the Syväjärvi open pit mine site in Q4 2023. The topping-out ceremony of the main building took place in October 2024.
Construction on the concentrator continues as planned with a valid environmental permit. Read more on the environmental permits under Sustainability,
The seven proposed mining sites are:
- Syväjärvi
- Rapasaari
- Emmes
- Outovesi
- Länttä
- Tuoreetsaaret
- Leviäkangas
Both open pit and some underground mining are expected to take place at Keliber’s seven high-grade spodumene lithium ore deposits.
Sibanye-Stillwater’s Keliber lithium project has reported Mineral Resources from seven lithium deposits. Detailed open-pit mining plans have been made for the two main deposits – Syväjärvi and Rapasaari.
At 31 December 2024, the Keliber lithium project had an attributable (79.82%) Mineral Resource of 15.8 Mt grading at 1.2% Lithium Oxide (Li2O), containing 471kt of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE); and Mineral Reserves of 10.3 Mt grading at 1% Lithium Oxide (Li2O), containing 248kt of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). Keliber Oy has a total Mineral Reserves of 13.0 million tonnes, containing 311,000 tonnes of LCE, an increase of 36.6% compared to the previous estimate.
These operations are situated across three municipalities, namely Kaustinen, Kokkola and Kronoby. Ore mined will be fed to the Päiväneva concentrator (see above).
The mining areas of Syväjärvi and Rapasaari have a combined expected life of mine of approximately 18 years, based on the current Mineral Reserves. There is potential for discovering additional Mineral Reserves.
- Sibanye-Stillwater announced that it had given the go-ahead for the implementation of the Keliber lithium project and construction of the Keliber lithium refinery on 28 November 2022. See the Keliber lithium project update and the related presentation.
- The total capital investment to complete the construction phase is estimated to be approximately EUR 783 million (R15.2 billion).
- Construction of the Keliber lithium refinery started on 7 March 2023.
- Earthworks and selected infrastructure works commenced at the Päiväneva concentrator and the Syväjärvi open pit mine site in Q4 2023.
- The construction work on the second phase of the Keliber lithium project, comprising the concentrator in Päiväneva and the development of the Syväjärvi open pit mine, is progressing well and cold commissioning at the concentrator commenced in the end of Q2 2025.
- The construction phase was completed and mining commenced in Q1 2026
- Following a comprehensive, multidisciplinary assessment of the project , a staged start-up of the Keliber lithium project is considered the optimal way forward, given current market conditions.
- The staged commissioning of the various elements of the project (mine, concentrator, and refinery) reduces project ramp up risk, by initially ensuring operational readiness in the mining and concentrating stages, before making a decision on the timing of the commissioning of the refinery. See announcement for further details.
- Key milestones will continuously be assessed as the Keliber project advance during its pre-operational phase whilst concurrently engaging with potential strategic off-takers.
