Metals Australia Ltd (ASX:MLS) has confirmed that the final stage of the Phase 2 metallurgical testwork on the company’s high-grade Lac Rainy Graphite Project in Quebec, Canada has produced a pilot scale bulk sample of graphite concentrate that has met the required specifications for downstream lithium-ion battery testwork.
This bulk concentrate sample has now been despatched to specialist graphite testing group, ProGraphite in Germany to carry out critical spheronisation (spherical graphite), purification and battery testwork to determine lithium-ion battery anode charging qualities and durability.
The achievement of pilot-scale production of this high-grade graphite bulk-concentrate completes the Phase 2 metallurgical testwork and processing flow-sheet development programme that has produced the following outstanding results:
- Optimised bench-scale tests produced combined flake graphite concentrate grading 96.8% Cg, which is at the upper end of the targeted range of 94 to 97% Cg1 .
- ii) Locked closed circuit (LCT) testwork (which approximates plant conditions) produced a combined concentrate grade of 95.5% Cg at a very-high overall recovery into the concentrate of 95.1% Cg.
- iii) Sulphide flotation of tailings removed 98% of sulphur into a high-grade sulphide concentrate. This represents a saleable product and removes the risk of acid-mine-drainage from tailings.
- iv) Pilot-scale production of on-specification bulk concentrate of 6.5kg (target 5 to 10kg) at a combined grade of 94.0% Cg (target >94% Cg). This includes 1.3kg of +150-micron larger flakegraphite at a very high-grade of 96.0% Cg.
This Phase 2 testwork and flow-sheet development programme has significantly improved the flotation circuit, graphite recoveries and optimised flake distribution in bench-scale, locked closed circuit (LCT) and pilot-scale concentrate production from the Lac Rainy Graphite Project.
The bulk concentrate that has been despatched to ProGraphite in Germany will now undergo Phase 3 spherical graphite and lithium-ion battery testwork, to include:
· Initial mineralogy and flake-graphite characterisation,
· Spheronisation testwork to produce spherical graphite,
· Purification of the spherical graphite – targeting 99.95% Cg,
· Electrochemical (battery) testing of the purified spherical graphite.
The purpose of the spherical graphite and battery testwork is to produce very-high purity (target 99.95% Cg) spherical graphite for electrochemical testwork to determine lithium-ion battery anode charging qualities and durability.
“The outstanding outcomes from the graphite testwork on the Lac Rainy high-grade graphite resource material have demonstrated that we can produce high-grade concentrate at pilot scale as well as achieve excellent recoveries,” Metals Australia Chairman, Mike Scivolo, said.
“We are now very much looking forward to the results of the spherical graphite and battery testwork in Germany, to demonstrate the high-quality of our graphite product and provide impetus to discussions with key offtake and funding partners – that have already shown interest in the Lac Rainy Graphite Project.
“These very positive metallurgical results will also allow us to re-focus on the outstanding exploration potential of the project to grow the high-grade graphite resource base.”
Following the outstanding Phase 2 metallurgy results, the company will now re-focus on the outstanding exploration potential of the Project to grow the high-grade graphite resource base which is currently a JORC 2012 Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 13.3Mt @ 11.5% Total Graphitic Carbon (Cg) (including Indicated: 9.6Mt @ 13.1% Cg and Inferred: 3.7Mt @ 7.3% Cg)3 (5% Cg cut-off).
The identified Mineral Resource at Lac Rainy is within the only 1.6km strike-length zone that has been drilled out to date at the south-eastern end of the over 6km strike-length Carheil graphite trend. The remaining 4.4km of this graphitic trend remains un-drilled.
The parallel West Carheil trend that has produced very high-grade rockchip results of over 20% Cg2 also remains undrilled over a 4km strike length. In addition, electromagnetic (EM) anomalies identified on the Lac Rainy – Nord tenements have been verified as being associated with graphite occurrences that produced rockchip results of up to 8% Cg. This represents an additional 12km of strike potential.
Over 20km strike-length of graphitic trends have been identified on the Lac Rainy Project of which only 1.6km strike has been drilled so far. This offers outstanding potential to greatly increase the high-grade graphite resource base at Lac Rainy. Drilling will now be planned to test the most immediate targets.
For further information please visit: https://metalsaustralia.com.au/
