Lithium Universe is one step closer to establishing its proposed Quebec lithium processing hub after appointing Primero Group as the lead manager to design its multi-purpose stand-alone concentrator in Canada.
Management says the appointment follows an extensive process to procure a contractor with suitable experience and capabilities to undertake the design of a stand-alone concentrator to process one million tonnes per year of spodumene ore.
Primero’s study into the concentrator will define the process and non-process infrastructure requirements for the project, in addition to the definitive estimated capital and operating costs. The study will also address specific project development, delivery and operating considerations including permitting and approvals, beneficiation flowsheet, risk management, sustainability measures and product logistics.
The concentrator design is expected to be similar to the Mt Cattlin plant in the Western Australian town of Ravensthorpe, which uses a simple dense media separation (DMS). The processing plant will include a four-stage crushing operation to produce particles of less than 6mm, which will then undergo DMS. A small flotation circuit will be incorporated into the crusher under-size stream to enhance recoveries.
In essence, Lithium Universe chairman Iggy Tan is hoping to oversee something of a mirror image in Canada of the Mt Cattlin plant operation he directed when he was the then-boss at Galaxy Resources.
Primero was founded in 2011 and specialises in providing design, construction and operational services for resource projects worldwide.
Mr Tan said: “We are fortunate to partner with a group such as Primero who has extensive lithium process design experience. Their experience includes the Bald Hill Lithium Project, Core Lithium’s Finniss Project, Covalent Lithium’s Mt Holland project, Allkem’s James Bay Project, Piedmont Lithium Project, and Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora Project. The design of the QLPH concentrator will be closely directed and supervised by the LU7 team of lithium experts.”
The company’s Apollo lithium project covers about 240 square kilometres and includes 466 claims in the province of Quebec in the famed James Bay region. The site is considered a greenfield project with limited historical exploration. Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests has identified 17 outcrops on the property as dominantly being pegmatite-hosted.
The claim at Apollo was staked early last year by a private owner and is on the same trend as and adjacent to ground owned by Patriot Battery Metals and Winsome Resources – both of which have hit thick, shallow and high-grade coarse spodumene mineralisation during drilling.
Patriot’s Corvette deposit holds an inferred resource of 109.2 million tonnes at 1.42 per cent lithium oxide and 160 parts per million tantalum oxide. Drilling at the site has returned some impressive hits including 156m at 2.12 per cent lithium oxide.
Winsome has its Adina deposit about 20km east of Apollo, where it has returned best drill results of 107m grading 1.34 per cent lithium oxide from just 2.3m.
Lithium Universe recently completed a 5596-line-kilometre high-resolution airborne magnetic survey over Apollo at a tight 50m line spacing to image structural trends within the tenement.
The company says the survey suggests the presence of an east-west-trending fault zone that is also visible on the lower-resolution regional dataset and extends 29km eastward to the Adina deposit. It believes the structure may represent a greenstone belt and provide a control on spodumene mineralisation.
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By Michael Philipps
