Critical Resources (ASX:CRR) is planning to execute a comprehensive feasibility-level metallurgical testwork program in 2024 at its flagship Mavis Lake Lithium Project in Ontario, Canada.
The lithium exploration and project development company will also undertake mineralogy, DMS and flotation feasibility testwork, with program scope to provide parameters for front-end engineering and plant design works.
Critical Resources is building on its scoping-level metallurgical testwork program completed in H1 2023, where combined heavy liquid separation (HLS) and flotation testwork produced a spodumene concentrate of 5.98% Li2O at 87.3% lithia recovery.
The company has engaged Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) and STARK Resources to conduct a collaborative testwork program to assess the amenability of Mavis Lake ore to concentration by coarse, dry ore sorting.
The drilling campaign for the metallurgical testwork program has now been completed and samples are currently being prepared to support workstreams starting in early 2024.
Critical Resources Managing Director Alex Cheeseman says the metallurgical testwork completed to date has shown that the Mavis Lake Resource is amenable to a range of processing flowsheets.
“And we have previously been very successful in generating a high-grade, low-impurity spodumene concentrate with compelling metallurgical recoveries. As part of our commitment to optimising and enhancing the project from the outset, we want to further our understanding of the potential economic and operating benefits that new and innovative processing opportunities like ore sorting can offer.”
Some 150kg of Mavis Lake drill core was recently delivered to SRC Saskatoon. The sample suite encompasses the full range of ore and rock types exhibited at Mavis Lake, including waste rock, unmineralised pegmatite, contact zone ore, high-grade ore, and low-grade ore.
SRC will conduct a thorough mineralogical assessment of the rock and ore types as part of the testwork program.
SRC and STARK will work collaboratively to prepare core samples for an ultra-violet (UV) laser-based amenability study with STARK’s technology partner (Optimum Sorting). This technology detects spodumene directly and offers unique opportunities in the production of spodumene concentrate by separating spodumene from the unmineralised host pegmatite.
Critical Resources says the results and insights from these studies will inform the design of the feasibility-level metallurgical test-work program planned for 2024.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Critical Resources
