Lithium Australia’s “war on waste”
Lithium mica concentrates will be tested in a SiLeach pilot plant. Image: Lithium Australia. BY ELIZABETH FABRI LITHIUM Australia will commence testing lithium mica to determine if the material has potential to become base feedstock for its proposed large-scale pilot plant (LSPP) in WA. Lithium mica, long considered a waste material by the mining industry, will be sourced from one of two sites in the Eastern Goldfields, and tested at ANSTO Minerals’ (a division of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Lucas Heights laboratories in Sydney. Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said WA’s lithium fields hosted abundant pegmatites, many of which contained lithium micas. He said the company had already undertaken substantial bench-scale test work on lithium micas…