Metallurgical Test Work Initiated On REE-Enriched Clays At East Laverton

MTM Critical Metals Limited (ASX:MTM) (MTM or the Company) has initiated preliminary metallurgical test work to characterise the REE’s identified within clays at its Pt Kidman prospect, part of the East Laverton project, located in the northern Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia (Figure 1).

Highlights:

• Metallurgical test work commenced on recently drilled rare earth element (REE) enriched clays from the Pt Kidman prospect, East Laverton project.
  
• The program aims to characterise the REE species present within the significant clay intervals (up to 29 metres true width) identified from near surface and determine:
  • What fraction of the REE’s are “ionic” (recoverable by ionic desorption leach);
  • What fraction of the REE’s are in the more refractory colloidal & mineral phases; and
  • How temperature, acid concentration & pH influence REE recovery
• Conducting test work at this early stage enables MTM to ascertain the preliminary viability of clay-hosted REE recovery.

The Company has identified several zones of shallow, laterally continuous clay-hosted REE mineralisation at Pt Kidman through recent aircore drilling programs (see MTM ASX announcements dated 19 August 2022, 17 November 2022 and 15 May 2023). The proposed metallurgical work will enable the Company to make informed decisions on the potential economic viability of this mineralisation.

The work involves undertaking industry-standard leach tests under different reagent schemes (Table 1) to:

a) Characterise the REEs by host phase (ion exchange, colloidal, or mineral);
b) Determine the REE recoveries; and
c) Outline a preliminary process flowsheet if favourable results are obtained.

Testing will be carried out by Independent Metallurgical Operations (IMO) who have extensive experience with REE metallurgy including clay characterisation test work for ASX-listed clients.

Commenting on the metallurgical test work program, Managing Director Lachlan Reynolds said:

“Conducting metallurgical testing on the rare earth element mineralisation at Pt Kidman is imperative for understanding the future of the project’s development and for the exploration strategy over the whole East Laverton project.

MTM has discovered district-scale development of REE-enriched clays at East Laverton and metallurgical testing of the clay is now appropriate to assess the leaching characteristics of the mineralisation, which may vary from place to place within the overall project area.

The key test will be to determine the ionic dedsorption potential of the REE mineralisation. MTM wants to ensure that the leaching conditions that are required to extract the REE’s are potentially economically viable.”

Figure 1: Overview of the Pt Kidman prospect showing district-scale REE geochemical anomalies and the location of MTM drill holes.

The leaching test work will be conducted on 4 composite samples selected from the aircore drill holes (16 tests in total) and is anticipated to be completed during June 2023. Final leach test assay results are expected in July 2023.

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