How deep was your due diligence M.FitzgibbonNemaska was using the flotation method (a bit like CRE is proposing) to remove unwanted material from their feedstock on the way to lithium concentrate.
So nothing new there for most of us.
However, how many people know that they encountered difficulties removing a intrusive igneous rock called “gabbro” since it had just about the same density as lithium ?
They were actually cherry picking large chunks of rock that contained excessive amounts of gabbro (black color) in order to keep below 5 % those impurities. But even then, by concentrating by flotation, and since the unwanted gabbro had the same density they ended up with many batches that had anywhere from 6 to 25% impurities and had to be discarded.
This was a big problem and increased their refining costs a lot. They had new engineers come in from Europe I believe and I am not sure if this was resolved or not before their shutdown. So when we were all asking ourselves why out of the blue NMX was asking for an extra 400 million to complete the mine, this did not come with explanations and many assumed it was just bad planning.
Some more savvy investors might be thinking that Canadians do not have the brains to extract concentrate economically. Remember Canada lithium that suffered the same fate as Nemaska. technical problems that created unforeseen extra costs.
Yes Nemaska is showing a large reserve with a high lithium content. But that is not the whole story.
Knowledge and expertise rank # 1 to successfully produce lithium.
And this why hiring Primero to build our mine was the key to success. This and having a president (Doctor Haber) actually know what he is talking about.
Going with Primero to build our mine was a smart move for sure.
“Primero is proud to be part of the team awarded the Pilbara Minerals Pilgangoora Lithium-Tantalum Project. With Primero’s lithium expertise and relationships with RCR and Minnovo, the $138mil EPC Contract was secured.”
“Primero Americas was engaged by Sigma Lithium (Sigma) to complete a DFS for the Xuxa Lithium Project located in Brazil.”
“Primero Canada has been engaged to complete a scoping study evaluating viable options for the development of the Piedmont Lithium Project.”
Critical Elements and Primero Announce a Guaranteed Maximum Price for Engineering, Procurement and Construction of the Rose Phase I Spodumene Project