Orocobre Limited provided a progress report on the construction of the company's Olaroz lithium project. Construction of the Olaroz lithium project officially began on 21st November 2012. Progress has been swift due in a large part to the preparation and planning that took place in the preceding year. Sinclair Knight Merz, with the assistance of INFA, a well respected Argentine engineering group, completed detailed engineering for all areas of the operation, including brine extraction, transport and evaporation, the lithium carbonate plant and key areas of the re-purification and micronizing circuits. The procurement process was also well advanced with all main suppliers identified and with many construction and supply contracts at an advanced stage of negotiation or ready for awarding by the construction commencement date. In addition, prior to official construction start, various aspects of site preparation had been advanced, including the drilling of fresh water bores and pumping station and the time consuming removal of scrubby vegetation, "tolar", from the area of the evaporation ponds prior to earth moving. Since then, numerous contracts with a total value of $45 million have been executed, or are ready for execution. These include the earth moving contracts for the construction of the 4.2 square kilometres of evaporation pond and road construction for the bore field access road across the salt lake (which will allow production bores to be drilled), the drilling contract for sixteen 200m production bores, purchase of 37km of pipeline for gas supply and the establishment of the construction camp, fuel and water supply. All major contracts
awarded to this point have been on or under budget.