ioneer Ltd (ASX:INR) has given investors a video tour of its pilot plant facility at Kemetco Research Inc in Vancouver, Canada.
The video provides an overview of ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project flowsheet which produces both boric acid and lithium carbonate.
Flowsheet designed for unique lithium-boron mineralisation
ioneer’s flowsheet combines commercially available processes and equipment that have been configured by the company’s engineering team to optimise processing and recoveries from Rhyolite Ridge’s unique lithium-boron mineralisation.
In the past three months, ioneer has realised the three core objectives for its pilot plant, with the full process simulation allowing the company to fully vet the process flowsheet, which was developed as part of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) process.
This work provided important insights that will inform the final DFS plans to optimise recoveries and manage capital costs.
Pilot plant output used to further off-take activities
The pilot plant produced high-quality boric acid and lithium carbonate that is being used to further off-take activities, being provided to potential customers as part of ongoing partner and offtake negotiations.
ioneer believes this will more deeply inform potential partners about the robust nature of ioneer’s plans and allow for a meaningful pre-DFS due diligence.
Operated by specialty research laboratory
Kemetco Research Inc, one of Canada’s largest contract research and development laboratories, is operating the pilot plant under the oversight of ioneer’s process team.
The privately-owned research company specialises in extractive metallurgy, chemical processing and specialty chemical analysis.
The video can be viewed on ioneer's website.