Exceptional Results From Metallurgical Test Work – Up To 87.3% Lithium Recovery

Lithium development company, Critical Resources Limited (ASX:CRR) (“Critical Resources” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce the conclusion of its first metallurgical test work program and advises that high-grade, low-impurity spodumene concentrate has been produced with very high recoveries from its 100%-owned Mavis Lake Lithium project in Ontario, Canada.

Highlights

• Scoping-level metallurgical test work program concludes with consistently strong results across lithia grade and recoveries
  
• High lithium grades and recoveries, coupled with very low impurities demonstrates excellent potential for Mavis Lake to produce a premium product
• Representative feed grade (1.2% Li2O) produced a 6.02% Li2O concentrate with total lithia recovery of 77.5% via heavy liquid separation (HLS) and flotation
• High feed grade (1.6% Li2O) produced a 5.98% Li2O concentrate with total lithia recovery of 87.3% via HLS and flotation
• HLS optimisation delivers a coarse concentrate at 6.2% Li2O with 72.1% recovery
• Processing techniques, concentrate grade, impurities and recoveries to inform the Mavis Lake Scoping Study, due for completion mid-CY2023

The scope of the test work program was designed to support a Scoping Study for the Mavis Lake Lithium Project. The first tranche of test work was designed as a basic mineralogical characterisation and coarse fraction Heavy Liquid Separation (HLS) test work program focused HLS and magnetic separation. The first tranche of test work resulted in the production of excellent grade concentrate (6.4% Li2O) with very low Fe2O3 impurities (refer to ASX Announcement released 9 February 2023).

The second tranche of test work expanded to incorporate concentration test work on both the HLS middlings and fines components. From this, a global grade and recovery balance was developed for each composite. Mass balance, grade and yield can be seen in tables 1 and 2.

Table 1 – Grade and Recovery Balance – Representative Grade Composite

Table 2 – Grade and Recovery Balance – High Grade Composite

Program Details

The Metallurgical test work was undertaken by SGS Canada at their Lakefield facility in Ontario, with supervision in Australia by technical consultants MineScope Services. The sample suite for the test work program, was focused on representative samples from the Mavis Lake mineralised zone.

A total of 50 quarter-and-half core samples, from seven drill holes, were selected to provide a wide range of spatial locations, lithia grades, lithologies, spodumene intersection depths and also account for typical mining dilution. For full details refer to Appendix 1.

Click here for the full ASX Release

This article includes content from Critical Resources Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.