South Star Battery Metals Corp. (TSX-V:STS, OTCQB:STSBF) said it has contracted North Carolina State University Mineral Research Laboratory (MRL) to complete a metallurgical testing program using three one-tonne samples of ore from various targets within its Ceylon Graphite Project in Coosa County, Alabama.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based battery metals project developer said the goal of the program is to create a representative one-tonne ore sample to retest and confirm processing methods and reagents from previous process work.
The small-scale pilot test will also generate approximately 15 kilograms of concentrates as well as intermediate products and tailings samples for future geotechnical, chemical, and physical testing programs to better characterize the ore, the tailings as well as final concentrates.
The company said concentrates will then be used to test for a variety of value-add products as well as minerology, similar to the testing program completed on Santa Cruz Graphite concentrates. The metallurgical testing is expected to begin in July of 2022 and be completed in approximately 16 weeks, it added.
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“We are very excited to get started on our work program in Alabama and generate some concentrate samples we can test for industrial and value add applications including a variety of battery precursor material,” president and CEO Richard Pearce said in a statement. “Intermediate products as well as ROM (run of mine) and tailings samples will also be collected to help characterize the materials for future environmental and civil design work.
The scope of work for the metallurgical testing program includes:
- Mix and prepare representative one-tonne ROM sample including drying & crushing;
- Construction of pilot-plant circuit with rod mill and traditional froth flotation;
- Process testing to produce rougher concentrate samples;
- Sample preparation of rougher concentrates;
- Upgrading of rougher samples to produce high-grade (>94% Cg) graphite concentrates;
- Concentrates will be collected, dried and bagged for future value-add, physical and minerology testing programs;
- Rougher concentrates will be collected, dried and bagged for future physical and minerology testing programs;
- Suspended tailings samples will be collected and stored in barrels to test for future geotechnical, chemical, and physical testing programs; and
- ROM ore samples will be collected and prepared for future geotechnical, chemical, and physical testing programs.
“MRL has an excellent facility nearby, and our team is excited to be working with their talented professionals. It's a great resource to have so close to the project,” Pearce added. “If the results of this program confirm the previous test work, we will be looking to send 30 to 40 tonnes of ore to our soon to be constructed Santa Cruz plant and run through a full-scale pilot plant test. We will work hard with our partners to make the project the second new graphite mine in the Americas brought online and the first in the United States."
South Star Battery Metals Corp. is a Canadian battery metals project developer focused on the selective acquisition and development of near-term production projects in the Americas.
Its Santa Cruz Graphite Project, located in Southern Bahia, Brazil is the first of a series of industrial and battery metals projects that will be put into production. The company's next project in the development pipeline is a project in Alabama located in the middle of a developing electric vehicle, aerospace and defence hub in the southeastern United States.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com