Stellar met testwork draws investors into First Lithium story

First Lithium sees investor excitement on met testwork at Blakala in Mali
Concentrate grade of 6.8% Li2O and recovery of 80% would be sector leading if replicated in real life
Results show positive metallurgical characteristics with coarse grind sizes and easily liberated spodumene

Special Report: First Lithium has seen investors pile in on the back of metallurgical test results which demonstrate its Blakala project in Mali could produce the highest quality lithium concentrate in the world.

As prices rose in the last lithium boom and Aussie, Canadian and African producers chased recoveries to reduce the volume of metal they lost to tailings, concentrate grades began to slip.

While prices have long been set on the 6% Li2O benchmark originally delivered from the Greenbushes mine, recently spodumene mines in WA have regularly delivered concentrates of 5.2% and as low as 3.8% lithia, copping large discounts from purchasers.

First Lithium’s (ASX:FL1) Blakala testwork on the flipside has come in at 6.8% in SGS South Africa labs. Completed to scoping study standards, the concentrate grade didn’t sacrifice metal recoveries, with 80% of lithia reported to the concentrate via flotation.

The testing has confirmed the strong economic potential of the project, located in the vicinity of Ganfeng’s mammoth Goulamina mine, with around 98% of the lithium mineralogy consisting of spodumene – the mineral type most amenable to conventional processing methods.

A heavy liquid separation test resulted in a sinks fraction with 93% of its content spodumene.

“The initial metallurgical test results provide a clear indication of the mineralisation being defined at our Blakala permit in Mali,” MD Venkat Padala said.

“The Blakala prospect has always been an area of focus for the Company and achieving a marketable concentrate grade of 6.8% Li20 at a recovery of 80% with a 93% spodumene content being confirmed is a very positive result for the Project.”

Liberation

While lithium prices have retreated this year, the long-term trend shows demand from electric vehicles and battery storage will continue to grow at a pace well beyond the discovery and exploitation of new deposits once the current period of oversupply is worked through.

Blakala is on track for a maiden resource on the back of some stellar drill hits, which have most recently included strikes in the Eastern pegmatite zones less than 150m from surface including 24m at 1.53% Li2O from 129m, 28.59m at 1.51% Li2O from 117m and 9m at 1.62% Li2O from 117m.

Hits from the south extension of the main peggie included an intersection of 1.77% Li2O over 8.34m while a highlight hit from the second series of diamond tails in the western peg was 25.64m at 1.68% Li2O.

Anything above 1% Li2O is generally considered economic with only a handful of deposits reporting grades upwards of 1.4%. Those grades suggest there will be very high-grade resource pockets at Blakala.

But grade is not everything and metallurgy is critically important.

FL1 has shown less attractive lithium bearing minerals like petalite, borocookeite and secondary phosphate account for around 0.5% if the mass of the model mineralogy.

Spodumene makes up around 18% and alongside feldspar and quartz and tends to be well liberated, the company said.

It’s relatively coarse grained, which is important, coarser grind sizes tend to be easier to process in the hard rock lithium world.

Low levels of reagent required also suggested lower operating costs than projects where more chemicals are required to liberate the lithium metal from the ore.

With the initial testwork delivering strong results on samples with a head grade of 1.93% Li2O, the company will be completing additional work with samples with a grade representative of the likely resource grade to characterise the deposit further.

“The final concentrate with a targeted Li2O grade of 6-7% at a recovery of 70-80% was produced by a rougher test at 80% -212 μm as the spodumene is relatively coarse grained, with 80% reporting to be coarser than 100 μm,” Fl1 said.

“Since the cleaner tests met the targets, cleaner test 5 (cleaner without depressant) would be recommended as this test achieved the targeted grade and recovery without the need for additional reagents i.e., a depressant, resulting in reduced operational costs.

“More test work will be conducted on a more representative grade samples in order to further characterise the deposit.”

This article was developed in collaboration with First Lithium, 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.