RE:RE:CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH...Iconic need to move this project forward as per the feedback in the technical report. Not sure what they are waiting for? Are institutions going to sign off on throwing big money at the below report highlights?
14.7 Estimate Results
Mineral Resource estimate results at cutoffs of 400, 600, 800, 1,000, and 1,200 ppm are summarized in Table 14-2. This resource estimation includes data from all four drill holes. At a cutoff of 400 ppm, the results of the estimation were 5.37 billion kg Inferred lithium (5.37 million tonnes Lithium) in 5.574 billion tonnes of claystone.
Five to 10 additional holes are recommended for resource conversion and development, with a goal of converting some of the Inferred mineral resource to the Indicated and/or Measured categories.
Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves under NI 43-101
Conventional mining methods are not expected to be useable for this project due to the high water table and full saturation of the mineral resource. GRE has considered three possible means of extracting the mineral resource:
• Dredging: This method would scour the mineral resource from surface to depth, pumping the saturated material to a nearby processing plant. Consideration of sloughing would need to be made. One possible means for preventing or minimizing sloughing would be to pump water into the mined out area to maintain static head. This method would require removal of the material from the top down, resulting in recovery of the shallow lower-grade material first, followed by removal of higher-grade material.
• Jetted Drilling and Pumping: This method would pump high-pressure water through drill holes into the formation while simultaneously pumping the resulting loosened material out, creating a void that could be filled with pea gravel or other suitable material to prevent caving from the surface. One benefit of this method would be that it could be targeted to deeper higher-grade locations without the need for removal of the shallow lower-grade material.
• In-Situ Leaching with Dilute Sulfuric Acid: Drill holes would be drilled in a pattern targeting more permeable, higher grade portions of the deposit. Some of the holes would be used to inject a solution of H2SO4 and adjacent holes would be used to remove the mother liquor.
The first two methods are not commonly used for mining applications, and dredging is also not commonly used for inland applications. As a result, proofing of these concepts must be conducted. The in-situ leaching concept will dependent upon transmissivity of the claystone and solution chemistry. GRE recommends conducting field pilot testing to determine efficacy and design parameters.