Patriot Battery Metals Inc. (TSXV: PMET | ASX: PMT) has announced the results from heavy liquid separation (HLS) testing on pegmatites from its Corvette property in Quebec, Canada.
The HLS tests resulted in spodumene concentrate grading more than 6% lithium oxide at overall lithium recoveries higher than 70%. Recoveries were also strong on the lower-grade samples, indicating that the coarse-grained texture of the spodumene is more amenable to liberation.
“The results of this HLS testwork at CV13 are very positive and indicate strongly that joint processing with CV5 pegmatite material is practical and viable,” said mineral process consultant and project steering group member Brett Grosvenor.
“From a project development, risk mitigation, and flowsheet perspective, it is difficult to ask for a better result.”
The CV lithium trend, discovered by Patriot in 2017, spans more than 25km across the Corvette property. Five samples were collected from drill holes across the western, central, and eastern parts of the 2.2km trend of the CV13 cluster.
The HLS testing indicates that an operation at CV13 using only dense media separation (DMS) is possible. DMS is the preferred method of spodumene pegmatite processing due to its lower costs and risks. It also means that joint processing of pegmatites from CV5 and CV13 would reduce infrastructure impacts at the site in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region.
The company will next aim to collect a representative drill core sample over the summer and fall of 2023 to feed a DMS pilot plant.
Patriot suspended field work at Corvette last month as more than a dozen mining operators in Quebec paused operations due to the early and intense wildfire season, regarded by experts to be the most severe in Canadian history.
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