Hawkstone continues to clock up the successes with initial test work producing battery grade lithium carbonate using material from its Big Sandy project.

The lithium carbonate from the project in Arizona has a purity of 99.7 per cent, which is well above the 99.5 per cent benchmark for battery-grade material.

It follows on initial metallurgical work achieving 90 per cent lithium recoveries while successfully removing iron, aluminium and magnesium with minimal losses of lithium from the leach solution.

The timing is exquisite given that US President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to complete supply chain reviews of critical minerals used in manufacturing products such as car and energy storage batteries.

Further results from the test work conducted by Hazen Research are currently pending with Hawkstone Mining (ASX:HWK) evaluating options to produce a  battery-grade lithium hydroxide

Design of the bench-scale and pilot-scale phases, which will provide a more accurate picture of how material from Big Sandy will perform in a commercial environment, are currently underway. Bench-scale testing is expected to begin later this month.

Managing director Paul Lloyd said the company was pleased that initial testing had produced battery-grade lithium as it progressed the development of a preliminary process flow sheet that will be used in the upcoming bench-scale testing.

“With drill approval imminent at Big Sandy, the company will rapidly progress development of the Project to realise its full economic potential,” he added.

Hawkstone will kick off the next phase of resource drilling pending the imminent receipt of approvals from the Bureau of Land Management.

Big Sandy lithium project

Big Sandy is located in Arizona’s “battery corridor” straddling two major highways and just 80km from one of two US transcontinental railroads.

It currently has a resource of 32.5 million tonnes grading 1,850 parts per million lithium for 320,800 tonnes of lithium carbonate that represents just 4 per cent of the project area that contains an estimated exploration target of between 271.1Mt to 483.15Mt at 1,000ppm to more than 2,000ppm lithium.

Bench-scale testing is expected to take between three to four months and will be followed by the design, construction and operation of pilot-scale facilities.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Hawkstone Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.