Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc. (TSX-V:CCW) and Granada Gold Mine Inc have announced positive bench-scale leach test results, achieving 99% extraction of the contained alkali metal rubidium, from drill core sourced from the recently discovered EV battery metals zone at the Granada Gold deposit in northwestern Quebec.
The company highlighted that the project economics are enhanced by having gold bullion as a primary metal recovery and rubidium carbonate as a secondary by-product metal recovery.
“To successfully leach rubidium from the mineralized material is a major accomplishment for the Re-2Ox process. It demonstrates its flexibility in treating other feeds using the same chemicals and process equipment that we used to produce base metal EV salts,” said Frank J. Basa, Canada Silver Cobalt Works CEO, in a statement.
READ: Canada Silver Cobalt reports high-grade silver and cobalt intersections at Castle East in Ontario
The Coquitlam, British Columbia-based company said that it is now positioned to use the Re-2Ox process to accept additional feeds for evaluation under a toll processing arrangement.
Basa noted that the company plans to reintegrate the precious metal leaching stage into the Re-2Ox process, thereby making the process more viable. “This precious metal production will permit the production of EV battery salts by-products at low or no cost,” he said.
The company will be working closely with Granada Gold Mine in the coming months to use the Re-2Ox process to further develop the potential market and economics for the rubidium carbonate salts that would meet the EV battery metals market sourcing needs, Basa added.
Canada Silver Cobalt said that it aims to supply high-value metals to the electric vehicle (EV) battery market using the Re-2Ox process. With its 100% ownership of property holdings in safe jurisdictions containing cobalt, nickel, copper, silver, and gold, it is secure in meeting the demands of the global EV battery market.
The company also recently discovered a major high-grade silver vein system at Castle East located 1.5 km from its 100%-owned, past-producing Castle Mine near Gowganda in the prolific and world-class silver-cobalt mining district of Northern Ontario.
This discovery has the highest silver resource grade in the world, with recent drill intercepts of up to 89,853 grams/tonne silver (2,621 oz/ton Ag). A drill program is underway to expand the size of the deposit with an update to the resource estimate scheduled for Q1 2022.
Contact Ritika at ritika@proactiveinvestors.com