Atlantic Lithium Ltd, a funded African-focused lithium exploration and development company targeting to deliver West Africa's first lithium mine, has announced positive metallurgical test-work results in support of the pre-feasibility study (PFS) underway for the Ewoyaa Lithium Project in Ghana, West Africa.
Highlights
- Metallurgical profiling using heavy liquid separation (HLS) at a coarser 10 mm crush size delivers primary lithium concentrate recoveries of up to 80% in the dominant P1 material.
- Dense medium separation (DMS) replicates HLS results at pilot scale, providing confidence in the proposed gravity plant design to deliver an economic outcome.
- Results support a low CAPEX gravity separation plant at a coarser 10 mm primary crush size; comparing favourably to the scoping study base case at a finer 6.3 mm crush.
- Lithium and feldspar concentrate quality test-work conducted to date exceeds off-taker requirements and can be achieved using standard gravity separation techniques.
- Test-work completed on a total of 1700 kg of drill core in 64 composites tested across the Ewoyaa Project footprint with a focus on the first five years of planned mine production.
- Test-work completed in support of the PFS study now underway with targeted delivery 3Q22.
Lennard Kolff, Interim CEO of Atlantic Lithium, said: “Results have successfully demonstrated that we are able to produce high-purity, low contaminants 6% Li2O SC6 spodumene concentrate at a coarse 10 mm crush, which is much coarser than previously projected in the scoping study, providing potential for lower operating costs; especially within the dominant P1 material.
“Results have consistently delivered lithium and feldspar concentrate quality that exceeds off-taker requirements and reaffirms the suitability of a simple dense medium gravity separation process route, boding well for low capital costs, operating costs and carbon intensities.
“Results of the metallurgical test-work programme are a key deliverable in support of the PFS, targeted for completion in 3Q22.
“The project is exceptionally well located, being only 1 km from the sealed national highway and 110 km from the operating deep-sea port of Takoradi with adjacent grid power; we believe it is challenging to find better located lithium pegmatite projects elsewhere.
“With Ewoyaa being funded to production through our agreement with Pied-mont Lithium, these metallurgical results continue to highlight the exceptional potential of the project and the value that it brings to the company and our shareholders.”