Resource Development Group (ASX:RDG) has produced high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) using un-beneficiated ore from the Ant Hill deposit in Western Australia.
The $53.11 million market capitalisation company is conducting additional process improvements to reduce impurities and to improve the physical processes during the production of HPMSM.
Laboratory testwork is also planned to assess the effect of adding seed crystals to stages where precipitation occurs.
Resource Development reports a larger pilot plant capable of producing 40-50kg per day of HPMSM is in the final stages of design using the data obtained from the testwork program.
The company is aiming to initially construct and operate a HPMSM process plant capable of producing 50,000 tonnes per annum of HPMSM, as well as have the ability to increase capacity by an additional 50,000tpa.
The pilot plant will allow the production of a much larger mass of HPMSM required by offtake partners in order to proceed to the second and subsequent stages of qualification with vehicle and battery manufacturers. It will also provide additional engineering data necessary for the design of the full-scale plant.
Further, the pilot plant will be fed using ore from numerous locations within the Ant Hill orebody. Resource Development says this will ensure the process is robust.
Meanwhile, geometallurgical assessment of the orebodies is underway to uncover the best locations for sampling the orebodies.
Resource Development also updated the mineral resource estimate for the Ant Hill deposit containing 4.48 million tonnes at 17.9% manganese in the indicated category and 4.1Mt at 18% manganese in the inferred category for a combined total of 8.57Mt at 17.9% manganese.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Resource Development Group
