Apr 26 2017
MGX Minerals Inc. has filed a technical report on SEDAR related to the environmental treatment and recovery of lithium from oil industry wastewaters and continued development of its technology portfolio.
The report is now available for viewing under the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com.
As previously announced, MGX and PurLucid Treatment Solutions (“PurLucid) are developing brine treatment and lithium recovery technologies that provide superior performance while meeting a broad spectrum of treatment needs. The technology suite complements existing MGX technologies (U.S. Provisional Patent #62/419,011) (see press release dated March 6,2017).
The independent engineering group Saskatchewan Research Council (“SRC”) recently validated the rapid recovery technology results (see press release dated April 20, 2017) from Phase 1 testing by Dr. McEachern. Phase II bench top testing commenced in February with new brine pre-treatment and concentration designs. The new design incorporates PurLucid’s proprietary filtration technology and process optimization tools. In four consecutive bench-scale trials, lithium was successfully concentrated by more than 25-fold and the resulting brines contained far fewer impurities (notably calcium, magnesium, boron and sodium) that impede subsequent production of lithium solids. MGX plans to conduct a second round of independent testing with SRC once the upgraded design process is finalized.
Example results from Phase II testing are shown in the table below. Step 1 permeate demonstrates the limited lithium loss during initial environmental treatment (deoiling and scale reduction) of oilfield brines for reuse.
The report further discusses the recovery of lithium solids which are currently undergoing analysis for purity and crystallinity by x-ray diffraction and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy.
Also discussed in the report are on-going trials in oil industry wastewater treatment and the suitability of these waters as sources for subsequent lithium recovery. Excellent results have been achieved in oil removal (>99%) from waters with free and emulsified oil concentrations as high as 20,000 mg/L. Silica and other scale forming ions have been removed across a range of industrial brines making these waters suitable for further processing in lithium recovery and/or for reuse in the oil industry.
Sample chain of custody was managed by Roy Eccles (M.Sc., P. Geo.), a qualified person under National Instrument (N.I.) 43-101 Standards, and Dr. Preston McEachern, CEO of PurLucid. Samples were submitted to Maxxam Analytical Labs (“Maxxam”) for ICP-ES analysis. Maxxam is an independent, ISO-certified analytical laboratory.
Source: https://www.mgxminerals.com/investors/news/2017/257-mgx-minerals-files-technical-report-on-rapid-lithium-extraction-process.html