Manganese X Energy Corp (TSX-V:MN, OTCQB:MNXXF) said it has kicked off its high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) pilot plant, which has begun operations at Kemetco Research Inc. (Kemetco) in Richmond, British Columbia.
The pilot plant will demonstrate and validate, at pilot scale, Manganese X's innovative patent-pending process to produce HPMSM electric vehicle (EV) compliant materials suitable for cathode manufacturing. This is, most importantly, being done without the use of selenium while significantly reducing the cost of processing, Manganese X noted.
"We are all excited by how rapidly the EV market is developing and how quickly we are progressing to address the battery needs of that market. Our cost-effective process is already attracting considerable industry attention. Manganese is increasingly being recognized as a key ingredient in durable, long life high density batteries," Manganese X CEO Martin Kepman said in a statement.
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Kemetco has now received a 1,500-kilogram bulk sample from the company’s Battery Hill manganese property in Woodstock, New Brunswick (NB), Canada. The bulk sample is a drill-core composite representing the first five years of Battery Hill's planned production, Manganese X said.
Kemetco will prepare this sample for use in the pilot plant testing and has already initiated the first phase of work to confirm and optimize the purification flowsheet, it added.
One of the major objectives of the pilot plant is to demonstrate that the company's Battery Hill New Brunswick manganese feedstock is capable of producing HPMSM on a larger commercial scale.
The pilot project will also validate and de-risk the metallurgical process through verification of the process flowsheet and engineering design, the company said.
It said it has received several HPMSM sample requests for pre-approval of EV battery cathode testing from various EV suppliers and potential end-use EV producers.
It intends to work with these suppliers to validate their quality specifications in order to expedite these processes in preparation for achieving its mission of being a major supplier of HPMSM in the North American supply chain.
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