Critical Elements Lithium Corp V.CRE

Rio Tinto LI initiative

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Rio Tinto starts demonstration plant for lithium concentration in Quebec

 

Vladimir Basov  Thursday September 29, 2022 12:18

 

Kitco News

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(Kitco News) - On Thursday, Rio Tinto announced that it has started producing spodumene concentrate, a mineral used in the production of lithium for batteries, at a demonstration plant in its Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium (RTIT) Quebec Operations.

The company said that the plant will demonstrate at industrial scale a new spodumene concentration process that provides lithium oxide (Li20) grades and recoveries well above the industry average, adding that this process offers the environmental benefit of not using chemical products and generating only dry, inert residues.

RTIT Managing Director Stphane Leblanc commented, "Rio Tinto is exploring new, sustainable ways to extract battery materials for the energy transition. We are seeing strong interest in the market for a North American supply of spodumene concentrate to support production of lithium batteries.

"Our demonstration plant will allow us to further validate the innovative spodumene concentration process developed at our Critical Minerals and Technology Centre as we consider moving to commercial scale production."

The demonstration plant was commissioned in June after successful laboratory testing of the new process and produced its first ton of spodumene concentrate in July 2022, Rio Tinto said.

The company noted that the plant will test ore from various local suppliers including Sayona, an emerging lithium producer with projects in Qubec and Western Australia.

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By Vladimir Basov

For Kitco News

 

[rockhound01]

Thank you for posting this GTRT. This is extremely interesting. Why would Rio Tinto make this kind of investment if they didn't think there would eventually be a feed source coming out of Quebec :) I know where there's a fantasic deposit for sale if they want to lay down the right amount of cash!!

[blaggers]

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[monkeyhere171]

All this is good, but CRE management said NO further advancements without permits in hand. So this will be hanging in the air while maybe we are missing on the last legs of the lithium run up! World economy is heading into recession and if demand collapses with it, price of raw materials will fall too! Making a deal in that time may not be very profitable, I'll prefer to strike a deal now