Critical Elements announced that it is making a headway in the recovery of lithium carbonate from the spodumene flotation concentrate. Till date, 91% of lithium carbonate has been recovered from the flotation concentrate and additional testing could increase this recovery to 94%.
Special importance was given to the recovered lithium carbonate’s purity. The company will ensure that the entire lithium carbonate production meets battery grade standards. So far, high purity battery grade has been attained with 99.9% lithium carbonate. To receive the battery-grade standard, lithium carbonate must meet at least 99.5% range. Main impurities, including potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium that are generally observed during the recovery of lithium carbonate from salars or sulfuric acid pugging method, are either absent or below 10 ppm in the company’s recovered lithium carbonate.
Work is being carried out to recover tantalum. So far, the total recovery obtained through flotation, and magnetic separation and gravity process was 60%, which is 10% higher than utilized in the PEA. Further work is being performed to produce pure tantalum oxide from the flotation concentrate.
The Rose deposit’s mineralogy is uniform; however, test work is being conducted on the spodumene’s primary flotation for variability characterization and comminution from various composites of the deposit.
During the forthcoming weeks, a flotation pilot plant will be operated to generate huge amounts of spodumene concentrate, which will result in producing tantalum oxide as well as battery grade, high purity lithium carbonate.
Critical Elements’ President and CEO, Jean-Sébastien Lavallée commented that the quality of the recovered lithium carbonate shows that the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project can surpass the battery-grade specifications specified by global battery manufacturers.
Vancouver-based company, Acme Metallurgical is performing the test work.
Source: http://www.cecorp.ca/en/