Arcadia Minerals (AM7) has taken a step towards confirming the economic viability of its Bitterwasser lithium clay project in Namibia through key mineralogical testwork in the area.
The company today announced positive results from the testwork, which was conducted on a representative sample made up from five drill holes in the Bitterwasser area.
Arcadia said the testwork identified the Bitterwasser clay mineral as Montmorillonite, which is similar to the type of clay present in prolific lithium deposits in Nevada, USA.
Arcadia Chair Jurie Wessels said clays around the world with similar mineralogical composition had been shown to be amenable to economic extraction.
“In addition to an increase in the existing clay resource and other factors, the result confirming the mineralogical nature of the clay material is a first milestone for the company towards possibly confirming the economic viability of the Bitterwasser lithium-in-clay project,” Mr Wessels said.
“Furthermore, and if successful, the work to test whether a lithium-rich concentrate can be produced by separating coarser gangue material from the finer lithium-rich clays will greatly improve the prospects of economic extraction using conventional leaching methodologies.”
He said this initial early milestone could be complemented by an increased resource for the project based on a recently-completed drilling program in the area.
Arcadia has kicked off leach testwork on the lithium clays at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa’s Western Cape.
Further, in light of the findings from the mineralogical testwork, Arcadia has appointed international mining services firm Multotec to conduct cyclone testwork and investigate the possibility of removing the clay fraction from the coarse fraction of the potential orebody. This could increase the grade of the lithium in the material to be leeched.
As far as the results from a recent auger drilling program in the Bitterwasser area go, Arcadia said it was still awaiting 370 core samples for assay from the program.
Arcadia previously said it expected to receive the drilling results between mid-February and mid-March, but the company is yet to report on any of the results. Nevertheless, Arcadia today told investors it was still confident it would receive all drilling results by the middle of this month.
If the results are favourable, Arcadia said, the company would work on a revised mineral resource estimate for the project to be completed by the end of June this year.
Shares in Arcadia Minerals were up 4.44 per cent to 24 cents each at 2:25 pm AEDT.
Comments