- Plateau Energy Metals Inc (TSXV:PLU) has announced the completion of a by-product recovery test
- The company’s test program was for its Falchani Lithium project in Peru
- The program was designed to recover by-products such as sulphate of potash, caesium and rubidium
- All of these are by-products from the lithium refining process, and currently are not being recovered by Plateau
- Plateau Energy Metals Inc (PLU) is up 6 per cent, with shares trading at C$0.24 and a market cap of $20 million
Plateau Energy Metals Inc (TSXV:PLU) has completed testing a recovery process for lithium by-products at its mine in Peru.
Plateau Energy has implemented the test program to determine how well it can recover sulphate of potash, caesium and rubidium as any products from its refinery process.
The company’s Falchani Lithium Project in Peru produces all of these by products through its refinery process.
Plateau has contracted ANSTO Minerals in Australia to conduct these tests.
The program focused on the recovery and precipitation of sulphate of potash and caesium concentrate from a pregnant leach solution created from the Falchani project preliminary economic assessment.
The final test work was run on a sample of Falchani lithium material at the same conditions as the lithium leaching studies published by the company in its preliminary economic assessment
The concentrates the test worked with were 3,400 parts per million lithium and rare earth materials in differing quantities
That lithium material produced returns rates of 43 per cent potassium, 84 per cent caesium and 67 per cent of rubidium.
President and COO of Plateau Energy Metals, Dr. Laurence Stefan said preliminary results were encouraging and supported the theory that by-products could be produced commercially at the Falchani project.
“ANSTO has demonstrated the precipitation of a critical caesium-rubidium sulphate chemical from leach solutions at temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius and of a potential SOP at lower temperatures.
“The SOP could be used as a strategic fertiliser for Peru and possibly in the rest of South America,” he said.
Plateau Energy Metals Inc (PLU) is trading up 6.5 per cent at $0.245 per share at 12:20 pm EST.