Western Lithium USA Corporation has announced that a series of analytical assay results by two independent laboratories indicate that high quality lithium carbonate was produced during lithium carbonate pilot studies performed in Denver, Colorado, for Western Lithium's Kings Valley, Nevada property.
Two independent laboratories in the U.S. and Canada reported results of lithium carbonate analyses of up to 99.5% lithium carbonate purity, and in some cases high purity of 99.9% based on the precision of the analytical methods employed. Western Lithium's processing method achieves 99.5% purity, but still shows elevated parts per million levels of sodium and potassium sulphate. However, following the standard processing, the pilot tests included a simple carbon dioxide treatment, which resulted in the lithium carbonate product upgrading to high purity product that is expected to meet industry battery requirements. Western Lithium has now produced approximately 2 kg of lithium carbonate product from its Nevada property.
"In 2010, we achieved our milestone to demonstrate that we can competitively produce high quality lithium carbonate from one of the largest known lithium deposits in the world located in Nevada(1)," said Western Lithium's President, Jay Chmelauskas. "With a competitive cost structure and potential scalability, we are well positioned to potentially displace some offshore lithium imports into the United States, and also to compete with exporting countries supplying lithium products to Asian battery and automotive manufacturers. In 2011, we will focus our attention on process and engineering optimization, product design and permitting."
In 2010, a Preliminary Assessment and Economic Evaluation Report was completed that indicated the proposed project is expected to compete as a low-cost lithium carbonate producer (see SEDAR filing, Feb. 10, 2010). The company is now proceeding with engineering optimization and pre-feasibility work, and this next stage of development will focus on final product specifications including product purity, size and performance. The engineering will incorporate the findings from the pilot studies as well as define parameters that will satisfy battery requirements potentially without a carbon dioxide upgrade process. A large-scale production run is now underway to initially produce approximately 20 kg of lithium carbonate for engineering optimization and product design to include in the pre-feasibility study.
Qualified Person
Dennis Bryan, P.E., Western Lithium's Senior Vice President of Development is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 that has reviewed the technical data in this news release.
Source: Western Lithium USA Corporation