Rare Earth Minerals plc (LON:REM) has received very good metallurgical results from the Cinovec lithium project in the Czech Republic.
REM’s stake in Cinovec is set to rise to 20.84% though its investment in the deposit’s owner European Metal Holdings (LON:EMH).
Testwork carried out by EMH revealed near pure lithium mica recovery of 92% using wet magnetic separation with a 10-15% improvement over the scoping study.
Using wet magnetic separation is also much cheaper than other processing methods.
Kiran Morzaria, REM’s chief executive, said: "These industry leading levels of recovery and concentration of the lithium mica via wet magnetic separation have exceeded my expectations and will deliver some significant advantages to the Cinovec project.”
Meanwhile, REM’s 15.5% owned associate MacArthur Minerals has found lithium in the Lida Valley, Nevada.
An auger drilling programme recorded lithium in all nine holes with grades up to 145.5 parts per million.
Deeper drilling will now be carried out to see if the lithium brine potential exists in the Lida Valley as the neighbouring Clayton Valley.
--update to include MacArthur news--