NEWS: receive Li bench test recovery of 96.25%
Noram, Alba receive Li bench test recovery of 96.25%
2017-11-28 07:30 ET - News Release
Also News Release (C-AA) Alba Minerals Ltd
Mr. Mark Ireton of Noram reports
MEMBRANE DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS PROCESS BENCH TESTING REPORT LITHIUM BEARING SAMPLES
Noram Ventures Inc. and Alba Minerals Ltd. have provided an update. Membrane Development Specialists (MDS) and Au Tec Innovative Extraction Solutions (AuTec) have completed a process bench test report, which concludes that an estimated total lithium recovery after first and second leach steps is 96.25 per cent.
Lithium deposits in Clayton Valley Clays has been known for decades and, in fact, the former bureau of mines indicated back in 1970's that acid digestion of lithium clays was technically feasible, but not cost effective due to the water and acid losses using conventional leaching processes available at the time.
Fast forward 40 years and with the use of new, but proven, membrane technologies that use large leach supernatant volumes at low pH containing dilute (100-200 ppm) of lithium extracted from clays as feed for series of membrane processes that purifies and concentrates these dilute lithium solutions into purified concentrated lithium streams for extraction using conventional technologies. MDS concluded the mining of lithium clays we believe is now economically feasible using MDS Acid Membranes and Systems to purify and concentrate lithium and simultaneously recover water and acid for reuse in the extraction process. Given the volumes of water and acid needed for the processing of lithium clay, being able to recover both for reuse in the process makes the process is a huge benefit which makes the digestion of lithium cost effective and attractive.
In addition, because the Clayton Valley of Nevada has extremely inexpensive power $0.04 kW, and power is approximately 50% of the operating cost for membrane plants needed for this process, the cost of power translates into a low operating cost per tonne of lithium carbonate.
Autec's summary of results on July 24, 2017, in the report "Noram Bench Test V-3 May-June 17 2017_2", MDS reported a Li concentration in the supernatant solution, generated with the optimized leach procedure, of 150 ppm which is equivalent to 80% of the initial Li reporting to the leach solution. A second leach step was performed on a subsample of the leached solids by combining 100 g of the moist leached solids (6.5% liquid content) with 200 mL of water and 10 mL of H2SO4. The second leach step resulted in a Li concentration in the leached solids of 36 ppm or an equivalent 81% Li recovery. Although the second leach step was not tested on the full-size sample, the results from the second leach can be used to estimate a total Li recovery after first and second leach steps of 96.25%. In addition to improving Li recovery, MDS reported that a second acid treatment step enhanced solid-liquid separation and filtering after leach.
Our focus is not only on finding and developing lithium and graphite deposits, but also on sourcing and supporting new, environmentally-friendly, processing techniques to produce our lithium and graphite products." said Noram's President Mark Ireton.
About Noram Ventures Inc.
Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX-V: NRM Frankfurt: N7R) is a Canadian based junior exploration company, with a goal of becoming a force in the Green Energy Revolution through the development of lithium and graphite deposits and becoming a low-cost supplier for the burgeoning lithium battery industry. The Company's primary business focus since formation has been the exploration of mineral projects that include lithium projects in the Clayton Valley in Nevada, the Arizaro East mineral claim located in the eastern portion of the Salar de Arizaro in north-western Argentina and the Jumbo graphite property in British Columbia. Noram's long term strategy is to build a multi-national lithium-graphite dominant industrial minerals company to produce and sell lithium and graphite into the markets of Europe, North America and Asia.