Montezuma Mining Company (ASX:MZM) has completed Stage 1 studies into the production of high purity manganese products from its 100% owned Butcherbird Project in Western Australia.
The results received from the leach optimisation stage conducted by the CSIRO have exceeded expectations.
Final leaching results produce a solution with over 91% manganese purity with over 95% manganese extraction.
The research is focused on hydrometallurgical processing studies to produce high-value battery materials from the Butcherbird Manganese Deposit.
The Butcherbird Manganese Deposit is Australia’s largest onshore manganese resource comprising large tonnages of near surface manganese oxide ore in seven deposits.
Battery-grade manganese
Manganese in the form of electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) is a key ingredient in several types of widely used battery technologies.
These include lithium-ion, alkaline and zinc-carbon, and the next generation lithiated manganese dioxide batteries, with cathodes comprising over 60% manganese compared to circa 4% lithium.
Industry observers expect the global electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) market to reach US$635.7 million by 2022 with a projected compound annual growth rate of 4.9% from 2015 to 2022.
Growth in demand from the battery manufacturing industry is expected to drive projected demand curves as technological advancements in wind and solar power generation and the need for associated grid electrical storage systems expands.
Test work result details
Early test work involving a range of hydrometallurgical options, including impurity leaching to generate a concentrate, and direct leaching of manganese, showed very encouraging results.
In particular, the first tests using selected reductive leaching, designed by CSIRO scientists, yielded excellent manganese leaching results, rapid leach kinetics (>95% manganese extraction in 30 minutes), and impressive selectivity over key impurities.
Subsequent work focused on optimising the leach protocols and confirmed that it is possible to achieve these results at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature at coarse grind sizes without the need to add sulphuric acid for pH control.
Discussions are in progress to define the scope of work for Stage 2 studies on further purification and production of a final value added product.
Butcherbird is part of a large project portfolio
Montezuma holds a number of multi-commodity exploration and mining tenements in Western Australia and France.
Its portfolio includes:
- Yamarna Gold Project, Western Australia;
- Holleton Gold Project, Western Australia;
- Butcherbird Manganese Project, Western Australia;
- Butcherbird Copper Project, Western Australia;
- Lake Johnston Lithium Project, Western Australia;
- Pinnacles Project, Western Australia;
- Green Dam Project, Western Australia;
- Mt Padbury Project, Western Australia; and
- Bonneval Gold Project, France.