Archives: Metallurgy

China’s refined tin production is expected to increase in the coming months as a number of smelters restart production following maintenance, environmental inspections and raw material constraints, the ITRI reports. “Yunnan Tin Co (YTC), China’s largest tin producer, restarted production on 9 October following a period of smelter maintenance which began on 31 August 31.[…]

Roskill reports that Pure Energy Minerals has executed a non-binding MOU with Tenova Advanced Technologies (TAT), TAKRAF and other technology partners to design, build and operate a pilot plant at its Clayton Valley lithium brine project in Nevada. The technology partners are SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions, NORAM Engineering and Constructors, and Solvay. The pilot[…]

The decision last week by ASX Top-200 lithium miner, Galaxy Resources, to take a direct stake in Lepidico Ltd (LPD), owner of L-Max®, will have multiple positive impacts for Lithium Australia NL. Galaxy intends to take a direct 12% stake in LPD, which has developed the L-Max metallurgical process that produces lithium carbonate from non-conventional[…]

eCobalt Solutions is announcing positive economics from the FS of its Idaho Cobalt Project (ICP), the only environmentally permitted, primary cobalt project located in the USA. The FS is based on an underground mine with a target production rate of 800 short t/d and a weighted average annual production of 2.4 Mlb of cobalt, 3.3[…]

Roskill says “demand for battery-grade nickel is expected to boom over the coming decade as the result of the use of nickel in lithium-ion cathode materials used in electric vehicles (EVs). Demand for nickel in this application is expected to outpace overall trends in automotive electrification, owing to a shift to higher-nickel chemistries and increased[…]

ALTA Metallurgical has announced a focused 1-day ISR (in-situ recovery) symposium to be organised in cooperation with CSIRO Minerals. The symposium will be held Wednesday May 23 2018, and follows on from the three previous ISR events organised by CSIRO. ISR has been mainly limited to roll front sandstone type uranium deposits which have suitable[…]

Albemarle Corp, a leader in the production of lithium and lithium derivatives, has developed an innovative technology that could enable Albemarle to sustainably increase total lithium production in Chile to as much as 125,000 t/y of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), without the need for additional brine pumping at the Salar de Atacama. As a result[…]

INTMET is a European funded project titled Integrated innovative metallurgical system to benefit efficiently polymetallic, complex and low-grade ores and concentrates (http://www.intmet.eu). It focuses – as the titles indicates – on the difficult task to recover valuable metal from low-grade and complex ores. It  aims to develop three innovative hydrometallurgical processes (atmospheric, pressure and bioleaching),[…]

Lori Kormos, Principal GeoScientist at XPS asks “do your ores contain pyrrhotite? In many base metal concentrators, the presence of this Fe sulphide can have a negative impact on metallurgy and in some cases can wreak havoc on the economics of an operation. XPS is an industry leader in understanding and minimizing the effect of[…]

Gregg Hill of XPS notes that “lithium mining is a Canadian growth industry, with Canadian hard rock deposits offering some distinct advantages for high-tech lithium markets. “The battery industry has continued to push the envelope for product purity, especially with respect to control of magnesium and iron contamination. Historically the majority of commercial lithium has[…]