TG Metals’ lithium flotation testwork delivers the right stuff

Flotation testwork delivers excellent lithium recoveries from Burmeister fines
TG Metals says hybrid flowsheet supports its goal of lowest capital intensity and competitive operating costs
Results support establishing Lake Johnston as large, low-cost, open-cut lithium mining operation

Special Report: Initial flotation testwork on the fines component of samples from TG Metals’ Burmeister deposit has achieved excellent results, increasing overall lithium recovery to between 75.5% and 80.2%.

It follows on the company using a simple combination of ore sorting technology to reject the bulk of the iron content along with heavy liquid separation to produce a high-grade, low-impurity spodumene concentrate grading up to 6.31% Li2O.

This is well above the 6% Li2O benchmark on which the commodity is priced.

TG Metals (ASX:TG6) notes that the combination of flotation with HLS testwork resulted in the production of spodumene concentrates with grades range from 5.28% to 5.74% Li2O that are low in impurities.

Chief executive officer David Selfe said the sighter metallurgical testwork had demonstrated that a hybrid flowsheet was a preferred hard-rock lithium processing alternative to a whole of ore flotation-only flowsheet for the Burmeister deposit.

“This supports the project aim to target the lowest capital intensity and competitive operating costs as the company considers progressing scoping engineering studies and supporting metallurgical testwork,” he added.

“The Burmeister spodumene mineralisation has performed well to metallurgical sighter testwork, producing coarse and fine quality concentrates low in impurities, underpinning future optimisation and flowsheet development.

“These are extremely good results and supports the pathway to establishing the Lake Johnston project as a large, low-cost, open-cut lithium mining operation.”

Metso flotation unit used to recover lithium to a spodumene concentrate. Pic: TG Metals

Metallurgical testing

The metallurgical testing was carried out at Metallurgy Pty Ltd, a commercial laboratory in Perth, and overseen by independent consultant Michael Rodriguez, who has over 35 years of practical and technical experience in the mining, minerals processing, hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical industries.

This work, which built on the initial ore sorting and HLS testing in October 2024, was designed to optimise the preliminary HLS testwork results including the application of flotation technology for the improved recovery of lithium from the fines fraction generated in the production of coarse spodumene concentrate.

It demonstrated that coarse and fine quality spodumene concentrate products can be produced via the application of a combination of ore sorting, HLS/DMS technology complimented with the use of magnetic separation and flotation technology.

Burmeister sits within the company’s Lake Johnston project in WA north of Esperance.

Its namesake greenstone belt contains lithium from hard rock sources in the form of spodumene-bearing pegmatites, something TG6 has found in abundance.

This article was developed in collaboration with TG Metals, 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.