Jindalee Lithium (ASX: JLL) shares further excellent metallurgical results from McDermitt - Kalkine Media

Highlights

• Acid leaching of beneficiated McDermitt ore has delivered excellent lithium extraction rates.
• Lithium extraction rates from 250µm leach feed averaged 93%, while from 75µm leach feed, it averaged 94%.
• Exception extraction rates have been returned from 250µm leach feed with higher acid additions.
• To commence downstream testwork, bulk sample leaching has progressed.
• Samples have been sent to POSCO for parallel leach testwork.

Shares of mineral exploration company Jindalee Lithium Limited (ASX: JLL) jumped by over 10% during the morning session on 18 January 2024 as the company shared initial results from acid leaching of beneficiated McDermitt ore.

Acid leaching of beneficiated McDermitt ore delivered excellent lithium extraction rates.

McDermitt is the company’s flagship lithium project in the US.

Excellent metallurgical results from McDermitt

Ore samples were beneficiated with a cut-size of 250-micron (µm) and material passing was subjected to two treatment methods, either direct leaching (250 µm leach feed) or further grounding until passed 75µm (75µm feed).

Extremely high lithium extraction rates have been recorded from the 250 µm and 75µm leach feeds by employing 500kg sulphuric acid per tonne of leach feed. From the 250µm leach feed, lithium extraction stood at 92.9% and from 75µm leach feed, rate was 94%.

The 250µm leach feed was further leached with more strength acid (850kg/t leach feed) and reported significant extraction rates which exceeded 98.5% for all units.

The leach testwork took up to four hours and majority of Li extraction happened in the first hour.

The company plans to include optimised lithium extraction and acid addition rates in the pre-feasibility study (PFS).

Background of metallurgical results from McDermitt

Metallurgical testing began in July 2023, when the company transported around 700kg of drill to Hazen for test work. The testing was managed by Flour Corporation, an international engineering, construction, procurement and maintenance firm. From Units 4, 6, 8 and 10, core samples were chosen within the indicated portion of conceptual Pit Shell 6. The selected units carry higher lithium grades and selective mining them has the capability to yield higher-grade material for processing, in comparison to the average grade of Mineral Resource Estimate.

In October 2023, head assays were released with the selected units averaging 1,790 ppm Li, which is 34% more than the average mineral resource grade of McDermitt.

In mid-November 2023, results from beneficiation of composite samples were shared, which reported 92% Li recovery with 25.3% mass rejection. Also, the lithium grade to leach surged to 2,107 ppm Li.

JLL shares jump over 10%

JLL shares jumped 11.21% to trade at AU$1.190 apiece at the time of writing on 19 January 2024.