Lithium Processing Technology Update
Lithium Processing Technology Update
-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
Montréal, July 19, 2020 – St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE: SX) (OTC: SXOOF) (FSE: 85G1) is
pleased to provide additional in formation regarding the contracted pilot plant facilities of Carrefour
innovation sur les matériaux de la MRC des Sources or “CIMMS” initially disclosed in a press release
on July 10, 2020. The Company is also providing an update on its research and development process that
is now fully reactivated following a slower development period in the last quarter.
The pilot plant operations
The pilot plant being contracted is a “state of the art” newly-built facility owned and operated by CIMMS.
The agreement has an 18-month duration and can be extended. It marks the beginning of a new phase of
testing in the development of the Company’s lithium processing technology.
CIMMS-contracted infrastructures and res ources allow St -Georges Metallurgy to scale up instantly
without the la g time usually experien ced when research teams integrate new members and train on new
equipment. CIMMS also contributes immediately to the Company’s bank of res ources and expertise by
making available experienced and highly respected lithiu m metallurgy rese archers. The CIMMS-led
team consists of:
Yu-Mei Han, Ph.D. Metallurgy, who is the technical director and was the process engineer during the
start up of the Quebec lithium mine. She is very experienced in lithium pilot plant design and conception.
Denys Pinard, Chemist with nearly 40 years’ experie nce in hyd rometallurgy. Denys was the 4 th person
hired by Québec Lithium, where he participated in the start up of the ir commercial plant. His experti se
revolves around lithium extraction process es, spodumene decrepitation, sulfidation, lixiviation,
purification, and carbonation.
Jonathan Viens, Operation supervisor of the CIMMS, Jonathan has experience in characterization and
optimization of spodumene acidulation processes. He has worked on the realization of different projects,
specifically on optimizing lithium recovery.
Sylvain Couture , Eng. Director of CIMMS, Sylvain accumulates decades of experience in industrial
equipment conception. Over the year s, he contributed to various R&D initiatives focusing on industrial
reject alternative usage and was involved in the start up of various industrial plants.
Enrico Di Cesare, St-Georges Metallurgy’s President, commented: “(…)With the extent of the partners
and the laboratories we now have integrated with our research initiative s, we have the flexibility and
scalability to fulfill all our research needs (…) the infrastruct ure and experience that is available and the
elimination of team integration and equipment learning curves should reduce the lag time between design
and concept ion and real -life indus trial tes ting significantly. (…) The current approach allows
development and innovation in parallel or allows multiple technical teams to work in conjunction to
achieve innovation or solutions as required. (…) The elimination of fixe d costs, building and
commissioning, and the level of c ontrol we now have on our development and testin g costs allow us to
take chances on concepts that would have been put aside before . We will continue to focus on Key
Performance Indicators but have some flexibility to try outside the box thinking and more f reedom to
innovate (…)”
For pictures and description of the CIMMS facilities, please scroll down to the end of this press release
Lithium Processing Technology Advancements
Shareholders and stakeholde rs alike should remember that th e Company was able to c oncentrate
mechanically the lithium found in the clay in the material obtained from Nevada Lithium projects. Air
classification resulted in the elimination of 55% of the gangue material with no lithium loss resulting in
an increase o f approximately 2.2 times the lithium content in the resulting material (See Press Release
“Independent Review of Phase One Lithium in Clay R&D Completed”, July 24, 2019).
Additional concentration with Nitric and Citric acid allowed for the elimination of up to 96% of the
material without loss of lithium. The resulting 4% having 99.9% of the lithium still present in the solution
and being equivalent to a 25-fold increase of lithium concentration in the resulting solution.
Fig. 1 St-Georges’ Hydrometallurgical Lithium Extraction Process Phases
Larger scale tests now take in account the moisture content of the material, often up to 17% moisture, that
the clay sediment carries and which resu lts in almost the same percentage of acid loss that cannot be
recycled in th e pr ocess and a lso, currently, of some lithium loss up to the same 17% when the leach
solution is filtered.
A conceptual scenario using 44 tonnes of feeding material from a blend of lithium-in-clay type projects
would result in 24 tonnes being disc arded and 20 tonnes being sent to an acid bath o f 180 tonnes of a
proprietary mix of acid dominated by nitric acid.
In the tests conducted during Phase I and previously disclosed, the Company metallurgists were able to
leach w ithin less than an hour, over 99.9% of t he lithium into solution, at atmospheric pressure and
ambient temperature.
However, the lithium needs to be recuperated , and the Phase I report initially underlined a significant
challenge for the process at the time. Fine materials like clays can retain much of the acid and lithium in
filter cake losses . That can represent retention of humidity that is higher than other concentrates, up to
17% compared to a maximum of up to 8% in traditional lithium concentrat es obtained from spodumene
hosted in hard ro ck material. The Company’s R&D efforts are now focused on further concentration and
the reduction of acid losses in the residues.
This phenomenon seems to be universal to all lithium-in-clay projects across the industry and is not a
specific situation. I t impacts the recuperation grade and cannot be overlooked . Optimizing the
purification steps and minimizing chemical losses will continue to be the priority along with minimizing
energy requirements. The intent is also to be able to show value-added by-products such as fertilizer and
start working with the industry to optimize chemistry to meet clients’ needs and improve value.
This led to an interesting dis covery by the metallurgical team. A new approach was introduced in the
conception of the Phase II processing technology applied to this type of material. The Company is now
ready to conduct scaling tests with a proprietary adaptation of resin balls that will allow the r ecuperation
of the lithium in the leach solution without filtration. The Company believes that this will sig nificantly
reduce the loss due to the moisture content. Tests need to be conducted on a large scale to test the
potential recuperation improvements as well as the loss of acid that would remain in the acid leach
containers and be recycled to process more material. It is important to note that the lithium loss due to
moisture in the filtration press ends up in the mining residue without cre ating important challenges.
However, the acid rejected constitutes a more important issue as it ne eds to be neutralized, increasing
infrastructure, neutralization material, and workforce costs that , even if it is not estimated yet , are
guaranteed to be significant. The ability to scale the solution recently discovered is then paramount and
constitutes an important and positive development.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Vilhjalmur T. Vilhjalmsson”
VILHJALMUR THOR VILHJALMSSON
President & CEO
About Carrefour d’innovation sur les matériaux de la MRC des Sources (CIMMS)
CIMMS is a p ublicly funded research and development corporat ion located in Asbestos, Quebec. It is suppo rted by numerous
local a nd regional or ganizations, along with the provinci al and federal governments. CIMMS develops and carries out
technological innovation projects specifically related to the industrial, mining/metallurgy and innovative materials sectors.
About St-Georges Metallurgy Corp.
Created to manage all metallurgical research and development, joint ventures and partnerships , and hold all mineral processin g
technology intellectual property and patents. The Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp.
About St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp.
St-Georges is developing new technologies to solve some of the most common environmental problem s in the mining industry.
The Company controls al l the active mineral tenures in Icel and. It also explores for nic kel on the Jul ie Nickel Project & the
Manicouagan Palladium Project on Quebec’s North Shore and for lithium and rare metals in Northern Quebec and in the Abitibi
region. Head quartered in Mont real, St -Georges’ stock is listed on the CSE under the symbol SX, on the US OTC under the
Symbol SXOOF and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 85G1
The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy
of the contents of this release.