23rd Apr 2014 10:56
LONDON (Alliance News) - Rare Earth Minerals PLC Wednesday said an independent third party has verified that its joint venture partner Bacanara Minerals Ltd can produce battery grade lithium carbonate from the Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico.
The rare metals and minerals projects investment company said Inspectorate Exploration and Mining Services Ltd announced the verification following bench scale metallurgical and mineral process testing on clay composite samples from the La Ventana lithium concession, owned 100% by Bacanora, and the El Sauz concession, which is held under a joint venture with Rare Earth minerals.
Bacanora said in a statement that the independent tests recreated its roast-leach process to create concentrated lithium and produced lithium carbonate product with over 99% purity, with further tests showing over 99.5% purity.
Battery grade lithium carbonate is the premium lithium product employed by the battery industry in the production of lithium ion batteries, which are used in applications from small consumer and industrial appliances to electric vehicles and large stationary energy storage facilities for electric utilities.
"These results represent a very important milestone and breakthrough that establishes we can recover a very high grade Lithium product from this large, newly discovered clay-based deposit," Rare Earth Minerals Chairman David Lenigas said in a statement. "The fact that a "battery grade" lithium carbonate product can be produced, with over 99.5% lithium carbonate purity, is an excellent result for the project."
The Sonora lithium project has already reported inferred resources of over 2.4 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, and further drilling and project updates for the site should be reported shortly, Rare Earth Minerals said.
Rare Earth Minerals has a 6.06% shareholding in Bacanora, and the La Ventana lithium deposit currently has inferred resources totalling 60 million tonnes averaging 6,000 parts per million of Lithium.
The news comes after Rare Earth Minerals elected in March to exercise its option to move to a 10% interest in the San Gabriel, Buena Vista and Megalit Concessions, which surround the Sonora Lithium project for an upfront cash consideration of GBP250,000 couple with spending GBP500,000 on exploration and drilling over a six-month period.
Rare Earth Minerals shares were up 18% to 0.519 pence, making it the second biggest AIM ALL-Share riser Wednesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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