Pure Spodumene Nature of Piedmont Lithium Ore Body
- XRD analysis confirms pure spodumene nature of Piedmont’s ore body
- Absence of petalite and lepidolite in pegmatites expected to
lead to high lithium recovery
- Absence of petalite and lepidolite in pegmatites expected to
- Mineralogy consistent across Piedmont’s Core, Central, and
Sunnyside properties - Piedmont on-track to release Resource, Metallurgy and Scoping Study
updates in the next 60 days
NEW YORK – Piedmont Lithium Limited (“Piedmont” or “Company”) is
pleased to announce the completion of mineralogical analysis on samples
of mineralized pegmatites and composite samples from Piedmont’s Core,
Central, and Sunnyside Properties. All testwork to date effectively
demonstrates that lithium occurs almost exclusively within spodumene in
Piedmont’s mineral resource.
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Distribution of XRD Samples from Mineralized Pegmatites from Piedmont Properties (Graphic: Business Wire)
| Table 1: Average XRD Analysis Results from 46 Drill Core and Composite Samples of Piedmont Ore |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Mineralogy | Average Wt. (%) of Mineral Types | ||||||||||||||||||
| Core Property | Central Property | Sunnyside Property | |||||||||||||||||
| Semi-quantitative Samples
(13 Samples) |
Quantitative Samples
(19 Samples) |
Composite Variability Samples
(10 Samples) |
Quantitative Samples
(3 Samples) |
Quantitative Sample
(1 Sample) |
|||||||||||||||
| Lithium-bearing minerals | Spodumene | 17.8 | 19.9 | 16.6 | 15.9 | 14.8 | |||||||||||||
| Petalite | – | – | – | – | – | ||||||||||||||
| Lepidolite | – | – | – | – | – | ||||||||||||||
| Zinnwaldite | – | – | – | – | – | ||||||||||||||
| Holmquistite | – | – | 0.5 | – | – | ||||||||||||||
| Non-lithium bearing minerals | 82.2 | 80.1 | 82.9 | 84.1 | 85.2 | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | ||||||||||||||
Piedmont has been advised that the character of its ore body is unusual
and highly positive, which will allow for a simplified flowsheet to
produce strong lithium recoveries. Many of the spodumene projects
currently producing or under development contain multiple
lithium-bearing minerals (petalite, lepidolite, zinnwaldite, etc. as
well as spodumene).
Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “As
the market’s understanding of lithium processing evolves, it will become
increasingly clear that mineralogy and metallurgy are the fundamental
building blocks of a successful hard-rock lithium business.Our
testwork confirms what we have always suspected – the Carolina
Tin-Spodumene Belt is exceptional not only in scale but in terms of
mineralogy.When combined with the shallow nature of our ore body
and the capital and operating cost advantages of our location, we are
excited about the upcoming resource, metallurgical and scoping study
updates.”
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here to view the full ASX Announcement.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190618005279/en/
Keith D. Phillips
President & CEO
T: +1 973 809 0505
E:
kphillips@piedmontlithium.com
Anastasios
(Taso) Arima
Executive Director
T: +1 347 899 1522
E: tarima@piedmontlithium.com
For further information, contact:
SVP, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations
T: +1 704 575 2549
E: esanders@piedmontlithium.com