American Manganese to Focus on Chemical Manganese Dioxide Production

Management has completed a review of American Manganese Inc.’s (TSXV:AMY) Artillery Peak manganese project, concluding that moving forward, the focus should be on the potential production of chemical manganese dioxide, “a patented direct hydrometallurgical process that does not require electro-winning or heavy use of electricity.”

As quoted in the press release:

In late 2012, Kemetco Research Inc. (Kemetco) successfully produced working rechargeable lithium-manganese ion coin cell battery proto-types from Artillery Peak CMD material recovered from the Company’s continuous process pilot tests in 2012, and presented their findings in a report titled:  ‘Chemical Manganese Dioxide from Low Grade Manganese resources’.  Further potential improvements include, but are not limited to:

• Defining higher grade resources in the Macgregor Pit area could reduce the overall project footprint.  The NI 43-101 compliant pre-feasibility study on electrolytic manganese metal utilized indicated resources grading 2.20% Mn. Some of the better intercepts from the Macgregor Pit area, grading from 4.02% Mn over 27.44 meters (90 feet) to 7.23% Mn over 6.09 meters (20 feet) suggests the existence of higher grade resources.
• Changing the production from 50,000 tonnes/year of electrolytic manganese metal to 30,000 tonnes/year of CMD, could further reduce the project foot print by up to 60%, as CMD consumes only 18,965 tonnes/year of manganese.
• Management’s strategy for advancing the Artillery Peak Project includes initially drilling to define higher grade resources; after which a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) will be undertaken.

Click here to read the full American Manganese Inc. (TSXV:AMY) press release.