Tag: Lithium Australia

LITHIUM Australia (ASX: LIT), Australian Vanadium (ASX: AVL) and private company Mercator Metals will collectively explore for nickel, copper and platinum group elements (PGE) along the Coates Mafic Intrusive Complex, 55km northeast of Perth, WA. Their tenements, which adjoin each other on the complex, have a combined area of 59sqkm and are known as the Coates project. The complex is about 29km southwest of recent significant discoveries of nickel, copper and PGE by Chalice Gold Mines (ASX: CHN) at the Julimar project. Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said Chalice’s recent significant discoveries highlighted the potential of the region. “ potential for additional discoveries in similar geological environments, and the Coates Mafic Intrusion, being so close, provides a tremendous...

LITHIUM Australia is assessing the use of recycled battery components as fertiliser micro-nutrients. Glasshouse testing of mixed metal dust recovered from recycled alkaline batteries were completed under the direction of the company’s consulting agronomist. Nine tests were conducted on a quadruplicate basis to statistically assess mixed metal dust (MMD) performance as a fertiliser against control samples. The alkaline MMD is produced by the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Envirostream Australia at its spent-battery recycling facility in Victoria. Envirostream collects the spent alkaline batteries from pick-up points at numerous locations, including Bunnings, Officeworks and Cleanaway, which are then mechanically shredded, with the cathode and anode active compounds (collectively referred to as MMD) separated. That material contains the high levels of zinc and manganese...

WA LITHIUM Australia has had a positive year with promising developments including the acquisition of Mt Deans East and the completion of the Ravensthorpe mine rehabilitation. The company has updated its raw material strategy for 2020 in order to establish a high-quality lithium resource base. Primary supply opportunities, including the Medcalf prospect, are being explored. Mine-waste streams (historical dumps and tailings) and discharge from currently operating mines are also being considered as sources. The Medcalf prospect has a cluster of stacked pegmatite dikes with abundant spodumene and a possible extension suggested by a lithium-in-soil geochemistry anomaly that was later discovered. The spodumene samples show positive signs with very low levels of deleterious elements. The company also announced that the Mt...

LITHIUM Australia has secured up to $6.3m funding from New York-based institutional fund manager, The Lind Global Macro Fund, under a convertible security and share purchase funding agreement. The initial $3m investment and a $100,000 share placement will help fund growth of the Soluna Australia battery business, commercialisation of the company’s cathode business (owned by its subsidiary VSPC) and growth of the company’s battery recycling business (owned by its subsidiary Envirostream Australia) and costs of the funding, as well as general working capital. Lithium Australia also has the option to repay the convertible security in cash, subject to Lind Partners’ buyback conversion rights for up to 30pc of the outstanding Face Value. Lind managing director Jeff Easton said the fund...

LITHIUM Australia (ASX: LIT) has confirmed an offtake deal with Korean battery recycler SungEel Hitech Co via its 24pc-owned subsidiary Envirostream Australia. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the exclusive supply of metals extracted from recycled lithium-ion batteries ('LIBs') out of Australia, specifically of mixed metal dust (MMD) containing the energy metals cobalt, nickel and lithium. Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said the MoU provides for immediate refining of the MMD that Envirostream produces. “Expanding Envirostream’s processing capacity to keep spent LIBs from landfill and export the energy metals they contain is an Australian imperative,” Mr Griffin said. “Closing the loop on the production of battery materials reduces the environmental footprint of the mining and processing...

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...

BY CAMERON DRUMMOND   LITHIUM developer Kidman Resources is the first Australian miner to sign an offtake agreement with Elon Musk’s Tesla.   Kidman entered into a binding agreement to supply lithium hydroxide to the electric vehicle maker over an initial three year term on a fixed price, take-or-pay basis. Kidman and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), under their Western Australia Lithium (WAL) 50:50 joint venture, are building a lithium hydroxide plant in Kwinana, south of Perth, to process spodumene concentrate from their Mt Holland hard rock lithium project. According to Kidman, the Tesla offtake deal equates to less than 25 per cent of Kidman’s proportion of output from the proposed 44,000tpa refinery. Other commercial terms of the...

BY ELIZABETH FABRI WESTERN Australia could become the next global battery manufacturing hub as it edges closer to mining all the necessary materials for lithium-ion battery production. Speaking at day one of the Battery Minerals Conference in Perth, Mineral Commodities business development manager Daniel Hastings said the State was expected to become “the only jurisdiction in Australia and possibly the world” producing all raw materials for battery production, including nickel sulphate, lithium carbonate and hydroxide, and potentially battery anode material such as graphite. “We take the view - like most other companies - that the current energy revolution has just begun and the outlook for battery raw materials is extremely positive,” Mr Hastings said. “The State will soon be well...