American Manganese, MGX Minerals, Fortune Minerals Mentioned in “Lithium Battery Demand Drives Process Evolution”

An article entitled, “Lithium Battery Demand Drives Process Evolution” was published on Chemical Engineering, and mentioned American Manganese Inc. (TSXV:AMY), MGX Minerals Inc. (CSE:XMG) and Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX:FT) based on their different processes. The article discussed the high demand for electronic devices and electric vehicles driving the need for, “innovations in sourcing, processing and recycling the major materials used in battery manufacturing, especially lithium and cobalt.”

As quoted in the article:

American Manganese Inc. (TSXV:AMY)

Spent and scrapped batteries hold a staggering amount of highly in-demand materials, and many organizations are working to develop efficient recycling technologies to take advantage of this largely untapped resource. American Manganese Inc. (AMY; Surrey, B.C., Canada; www.americanmanganeseinc.com) has developed a process for recycling the cathode metals (including lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and aluminum) from EV batteries (Figure 3). The company is currently constructing a kilogram-scale pilot plant to demonstrate the technology, which is adapted from a proven continuous process for recovering manganese from low-grade ores (Figure 4), says Larry Reaugh, AMY president and chief executive officer (CEO). A commercial plant with a capacity of 3 m.t./d is in the works, which will utilize scraps or off-spec metals from LIB producers. In bench-scale tests, 100% of cathode metals were recovered from LIB materials and scrap, which typically would end up in a landfill or in a smelter with inefficient metal recovery that may not even recover any of the cathode’s lithium. The AMY process should readily scale up, due to its history of proven continuous operation at larger production levels with manganese, explains Reaugh.

MGX Minerals Inc. (CSE:XMG)
On the lithium side, MGX Minerals is progressing its nanofiltration technology for lithium recovery. In this process, a patented high-intensity flotation process uses micro-bubbles to clean out residual oils, metals and small particulate matter from feedstock — typically brine, mine tailings or lithium-containing wastewater from oil-and-gas or chemical processing sites. This step removes 99% of physical particulates, says Lazerson, providing a very clean brine source for the nanofiltration step, which then further refines the lithium stream to the purity levels required for LIB manufacturing. “Basically, it’s an adsorption technology in highly specialized nanofilters,” he adds. “We remove impurities like sodium, magnesium and calcium in step one, so you end up with a very clean lithium concentrate, along with other salt concentrates that can be monetized,” Lazerson mentions. The company is close to completing its first commercial plant and is evaluating where to install its next plant. The current production scale at the plant is 750 bbl/d, and initial construction work is underway for a 7,500-bbl/day system.

Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX:FT)
Recognizing the necessity for new primary sources of cobalt to satisfy demands, Fortune Minerals Ltd. (London, Ont., Canada; www.fortuneminerals.com) is embarking on an extensive cobalt project in North America, a region with very little dedicated cobalt production. Fortune Minerals’ project comprises mining of cobalt, gold, bismuth and copper at a large deposit in Canada’s Northwest Territories and a hydrometallurgical refining plant in Saskatchewan that will process metal concentrates from the mine. “This project basically mitigates supply-chain risks by having a North American vertically integrated source with supply-chain transparency,” explains Robin Goad, president and CEO of Fortune Minerals. The project has undergone feasibility and front-end engineering design (FEED) studies, and the group is currently completing a new feasibility study to consider a 30% increase in production rate. “We are targeting production of approximately 2,000 tons of cobalt per year contained in cobalt sulfate heptahydrate, which is the preferred material for NCA and NMC batteries used in the automotive industry,” says Goad.