-- Patriot Battery Metals (PMET.TO) has successfully produced high-recovery and high-grade spodumene concentrate from the CV5 Pegmatite at the Shaakichiuwaanaan property in Quebec, the company said late on Sunday.
The company produced 4.47 tonnes of high-grade 6.09% lithium oxide spodumene concentrate at a low iron content of 0.58% and a high recovery of 89.0% from the CV5 Pegmatite using a Dense Media Separation pilot plant.
The program termed "ApplePick" utilized multiple large, angular, mineralized boulders situated immediately down-ice of the principal CV5 outcrop, which were crushed on-site and shipped to SGS (Lakefield) as high head-grade feed for processing in a DMS pilot plant.
The concentrate produced further demonstrates the potential for the company's proposed DMS only processing pathway for Shaakichiuwaanaan, the company said.
The approach allowed for the rapid and cost-effective generation of spodumene concentrate on a larger scale, without drilling.
DMS tailings streams from the pilot also generated feed material for a feasibility-level tantalum recovery program currently underway.
Given the success of the ApplePick program, the company intends to launch the "BerryPick" program targeting surface pollucite samples for larger scale pilot testwork and concentrate sample preparation.