Highlights

• Black Canyon is progressing a flowsheet design for production of HPMSM suitable for producing cathode precursor for lithium-ion batteries.
• Acid leach tests have yielded excellent results with up to 99% extraction rates from samples gathered from KR1, Balfour East, Pickering and Damsite prospects.
• Hydrometallurgical testwork on manganese oxide samples collected from the expanded HPMSM variability strategy is in progress.
• The company is planning to perform precipitation and purification on the KR1 sample, which returned a significant zone of outcropping manganese mineralisation recently.

Australian manganese explorer and developer, Black Canyon Limited (ASX: BCA) has reported progress concerning High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate (HPMSM) testwork.

The testwork has returned high acid leaching extraction rates from manganese oxide material collected across four sites from the Balfour Manganese Field.

BCA has been focusing on progressing a potential flowsheet aimed at HPMSM production.

As per the Company, the higher-grade manganese mineralisation identified close to surface gives optionality to develop standalone HPMSM feedstocks with potential lower impacts of a small footprint operation. The Company has established the technology to purify oxide ores across other hydrometallurgical applications, while lab studies are underway to explore methodologies that can reduce complexity, potentially lower CAPEX, and outline a reliable cost-effective flowsheet design.

Expanded HPMSM Feedstock Variability Studies

Experienced environmental and approval advisors, Preston Consultants, have been commissioned to advise on the likely environmental studies, approvals and timeframes as needed for a campaign-based mining operation. The facility would be focused on upgrading manganese oxide materials in preparation for hydrometallurgical processing into HPMSM.

BCA has begun environmental surveys at KR1 and KR2 to collect initial baseline data.

Data source: Company update

Expanded HPMSM Leaching and Purification Program

The Company sent four samples for acid leaching testwork after completion of review of the chemical analysis from the beneficiated samples. The data gathered from the successful leaching phase has been reviewed and sample KR1 was selected for multistage precipitation/purification.

Manganese leach recoveries from simple beneficiated ore
Data source: Company update

Growing demand for manganese

In recent years, there has been a striking increase in the demand for manganese. This is primarily because of the boom in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Manganese has its application in the cathode as well as constitutes a major proportion of the battery volume.

Consequently, the demand for HPMSM is likely to surge further with the use of manganese into LFP batteries, high lithium manganese compositions and high manganese iron-nickel.

At present, the HPMSM market is dominated by China, which contributes more than 90% towards global production.

Black Canyon believes that the rapid expansion of the manganese sulphate market beyond China will benefit the firm. Also, the growing interest in seeking approval for long-term physical supplies of Mn from Tier 1 locations, is expected to be another key positive.