Albemarle's new lithium hydroxide production plant will be located in the Kemerton Strategic Industrial Area, approximately 160km south of Perth, near the port town of Bunbury.

The Albemarle Kemerton plant will initially comprise of three production trains, each producing 20,000t/y of lithium hydroxide, with a potential further expansion to five trains which will take the ultimate site production to 100,000t/y by around 2025.

Civmec's scope of work includes structural, mechanical and piping for the hydrometallurgy and final product, reagents and utilities for trains 1, 2 and 3. The group's Henderson facility will be utilised to fabricate and pre-assemble selected components for the on-site plant erection.

Fabrication will commence immediately, with site works expected from mid-2019 to March 2021. At the peak of the construction phase there will be approximately 300 personnel involved in the delivery of the current defined scope, providing significant opportunity for skilled people residing in the region.

Patrick Tallon, CEO of Civmec, said: "We are delighted to have been selected by Albemarle as a significant construction partner for this exciting project. This two-year project is ideally suited to our operations, fabricating, modularising and site erecting steel work for this key Western Australian development. This project reflects the growing confidence in the WA resource industry, highlighting a bright future for the coming years."

The contract award takes the group's current order book to approximately A$758.5 million (US$540 million).