Results from metallurgical testwork show IRIS Metals (ASX:IR1) can produce a ‘high-purity’ spodumene concentrate from its Beecher Project in the US.
The company reports the testwork program completed on spodumene-bearing pegmatites from Beecher produced a 6.1% lithium oxide spodumene concentrate, with lithium recovery exceeding 82%.
Metallurgical testing aimed to assess the liberation and recovery of lithium-rich spodumene within the Beecher pegmatite, as well as confirm the ability to produce a spodumene concentrate that meets market specifications.
IRIS, which has a market capitalisation of $28.2 million, says testing produced high-purity spodumene concentrate, with samples yielding as low as 0.25% iron oxide.
This is considerably below industry specifications for concentrate of less than 1.3% iron oxide.
President of US operations Matt Hartmann says the results confirm the processing viability of the South Dakota deposits that host some of the “largest spodumene crystals in the world”.
“The South Dakota team is quickly moving to further refine our process flowsheet and complete process testwork on additional spodumene bearing pegmatites, with the potential of a near-term bulk sampling effort,” Hartmann says.
“IRIS is advancing efforts on several fronts as we continue to unlock value across our substantial holdings in South Dakota.”
The company is currently planning the next steps in developing the process flowsheet to support a hub and spoke operations model for the South Dakota projects.
These next steps will include bulk sampling processing with dense media separation and further refinement of the spodumene concentrate from the Beecher Project into lithium carbonate.
Now that the company has spodumene concentrate samples in-house, it is expected that testing with potential processing partners will occur in the near future.
IRIS has expanded its exploration efforts across a large portion of its South Dakota Project areas. Drilling recently began at the Tin Mountain Project, while site preparations continue at the Edison Project.
Exploration permitting is advancing and it expects to begin drilling Edison next year.
IRIS Metals is an explorer that holds a suite of assets considered prospective for hard rock lithium in South Dakota, US.
The Beecher Project sits within the broader South Dakota Project which comprises 2,387 federal mineral claims.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: IRIS Metals
