Future Battery Minerals says a hybrid flowsheet using heavy liquid separation and froth flotation could simplify spodumene processing and deliver high rates of recovery from its Kangaroo Hills project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.
Management says testwork on variously sized Big Red pegmatite samples produced a spodumene concentrate grading 5.56 per cent lithium oxide, with a stage recovery of 52.9 per cent from heavy liquid separation.
The testwork also obtained a spodumene concentrate from froth flotation of whole-of-ore fines at a grade of 5.5 per cent lithium oxide, with an overall recovery rate of 76.9 per cent.
The project lies just 17km south of the WA town of Coolgardie and 30km from Mineral Resources’ Mt Marion lithium mine. The company says it has the potential to host a lithium deposit of both scale and tonnage.
Management says that while only initial metallurgical testwork has been undertaken to date, the results open the possibility of combining both processes to produce a high-grade marketable spodumene concentrate at low impurity levels. It believes further refinement of the process could enhance lithium recoveries and product specifications.
The Big Red pegmatite has been analysed by x-ray diffraction, with spodumene being determined as comprising the dominant lithium ore mineral – making up more than 90 per cent of the lithium oxide present.
Future Battery says it will undertake further metallurgical testwork after its phase-four drilling program has been completed. The upcoming drilling program will test the potential strike extensions of the Big Red pegmatite, which it describes as being an outcropping, thick, high-grade and shallow-dipping structure that is open to the north.
It hopes the next phase of drilling will deliver additional sample material from longer intercepts at Big Red to provide it with a better insight into potential ore variability between zones, increasing laterally and at depth. It will also test other zones of interest defined by geophysics in the northern part of the project.
The testwork results indicate that processing of Big Red material via a hybrid flowsheet utilising both DMS and Froth Flotation can produce a high-grade, marketable spodumene concentrate with low impurity levels at robust recoveries. Being only preliminary testing, the results also demonstrate ample opportunity for further optimisation with more refined process evaluation across subsequent metallurgical testwork phases. Future Battery Minerals managing director and chief executive officer Nicholas Rathjen
The recently-completed metallurgical testwork was undertaken on composited samples from two diamond-core holes put into Big Red, specifically to test the responses of potential plant feed material to the two key flowsheet processes.
Three composites were taken from one drillhole across four different depth ranges – 51m to 58m, combined zones from 45m to 49m and 58m to 61m, and from 61m to 67m. Two composites were also taken from a second drillhole from the 23m to 28.5m zone and from the combined zones from 15m to 18m and 27m to 29m. Lithium oxide grades from the five composites ranged from 1.4 to 1.75 per cent and averaged 1.384 per cent.
Recommended steps for the next phase of metallurgical testwork include optimising the heavy liquid media separation, which will also examine the possibility for two or possibly even multiple streams of heavy liquid separation. A second line of investigation will look at combining heavy liquid and froth flotation concentration methods into a single integrated process.
Other work will examine optimal grind-sizes for froth flotation and optimising the flotation parameters, which will also consider the selection of the heavy media to be employed.
Future Battery says permitting for the next phase of drilling at its 100 per cent-owned Kangaroo Hills project program is advancing in the expectation that it will kick off in the first quarter of the year. It says the campaign will include reverse-circulation (RC) drilling to explore potential extensions to Big Red, which will be followed by scout testing of its other prospects – Quokka, Big Red West, Big Red North and Western Grey.
The program will also include further diamond drilling of Big Red for ongoing metallurgical testwork and RC drilling aimed at helping to shape the company’s maiden mineral resource estimate at the end of the year. But as is so often the case in resource evaluation, it will be all about the metallurgy.
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