Piedmont Lithium Announces Outstanding PFS-level Metallurgical Results

Overall lithium recovery during testwork for the preferred flowsheet was 77% at a grade of 6.35% Li2O.

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Business Wire, Inc.
Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Information
Tags: 
Natural Resources, Alternative energy, Energy, Chemicals, Plastics, Manufacturing, Mining, Minerals, Chemistry, Chemical elements, Physical sciences, Lithium, Spodumene
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NEW YORK, United States
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Summary
Key Points: 
  • Overall lithium recovery during testwork for the preferred flowsheet was 77% at a grade of 6.35% Li2O.
  • Simulations based on the testwork results support an overall plant design recovery of 85% when targeting a 6.0% Li2O spodumene concentrate product.
  • The Companys forthcoming Scoping Study update will incorporate the updated flow sheet developed during this test work program.
  • Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: We are very pleased with the results of this PFS-level testwork program, which confirms the outstanding mineralogy and metallurgy of the Piedmont Lithium Project.


Piedmont Lithium Limited (“Piedmont” or “Company”) is pleased to announce positive results from pre-feasibility study (“PFS”) level metallurgical test work conducted on composite samples of ore from the Piedmont Lithium Project (“Project”) performed at SGS testing laboratories in Lakefield, Ontario.

Dense Medium Separation (“DMS”) and flotation Locked-Cycle Tests (“LCT”) test work results showed high quality spodumene concentrate product with a grade above 6.0% Li2O, iron oxide below 1.0%, and low impurities from composite samples. Piedmont test results compare favorably in several quality categories with the reported shipments of three emerging Australian spodumene producers.

Table 1: Results of Dense Medium Separation + Locked Cycle Flotation Test Results (Composite Sample 1)

Sample

Feed

Grade

Li2O (%)

Concentrate

Grade Li2O

(%)

Fe2O3 (%)

Na2O (%)

K2O (%)

CaO+

MgO +

MnO (%)

P2O5 (%)

Piedmont Composite Sample 1

1.11

6.35

0.93

0.63

0.49

0.96

0.32

Australian Producer 1

NR

6.00

1.20

NR

NR

NR

NR

Australian Producer 2

NR

5.90

1.50

NR

NR

NR

NR

Australian Producer 3

NR

6.10

0.61

0.80

0.76

0.79

0.30

NR: Not Reported

The composite samples were prepared to approximate the average grade of the Project’s ore body. Overall lithium recovery during testwork for the preferred flowsheet was 77% at a grade of 6.35% Li2O. Simulations based on the testwork results support an overall plant design recovery of 85% when targeting a 6.0% Li2O spodumene concentrate product. Further optimization will be undertaken in a future feasibility level pilot testwork program.

The Company’s forthcoming Scoping Study update will incorporate the updated flow sheet developed during this test work program. The benefit of incorporating DMS technology into the flow sheet will be reduced operating costs and accelerated ramp-up.

Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are very pleased with the results of this PFS-level testwork program, which confirms the outstanding mineralogy and metallurgy of the Piedmont Lithium Project. We look forward to reflecting these strong results in our forthcoming Scoping Study update, which will also incorporate the substantially larger mineral resource announced in June as well as several other constructive refinements.”

Click here to view the full ASX Announcement.

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