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On 18 February 2019, Lepidico Ltd (ASX:LPD), a mineral exploration company from the metals and mining industrial sector, released Roskill Lithium Mine to Market Conference updare which covered the technologies to diversify the production of battery grade Lithium.
The presentation highlighted that through the clean-tech process technologies of Lepidico, the company collectively dig out lithium and recover valuable by-products from the less queried lithium-mica and lithium-phosphate reserves. The presentation highlighted that its pilot plant which is situated in Perth, Australia is in under construction. The company expects that it will commence in April 2019.
Phase 1 L-Max® Plant Project located in Sudbury, Canada is currently under the Full Feasibility Study, and the results will be announced in the second quarter of CY2019.Â
The feed sources for the Lithium-mica mine is from Portugal, Australia and Canada. Through the Ore access agreement with Grupo Mota over the operating Alvarrões lepidolite mine, Portugal, the company is well positioned to supply 1.8% Li2O concentrate to the ceramics industry. As at December 2017, the inferred mineral resource estimate was 1.5M t @ 1.1% Li2O. The completion of the drilling in December 2018 resulted in a revised mineral resource estimate of March 2019. Also, the drilling also resulted in the identification of two new lepidolite mineralized pegmatite sills.
The presentation highlighted the development of the pilot plant and phase 1 demonstration-scale plant. It highlighted that the L-Max® process is the declared Australian Patent Office to the novel, inventive, industry-applicable and patentableâ for production of lithium carbonate. L-Max® extracts lithium from non-conventional and relatively uncontested mineral source, lithium micas and phosphates, to achieve high extraction rates. L-Max® uses common and reasonable reagents for the extraction process and is also energy efficient. L-Max® requires conventional equipment, and it operates at atmospheric pressure and modest temperature. The By-products of the extraction process included potassium sulphate fertilizer (SOP), amorphous silica and potentially Caesium (Cs), Rubidium (Rb), Tantalum (Ta) and tin (Sn). L-Max® is also compatible with the S-Max 8TM as well as the other process technologies.
The presentation also covered the introduction of LOH-MaxTM. Lepidico in collaboration with the Strategic Metallurgy Pty Ltd has developed a hydrometallurgical process that produces high purity LiOH from a lithium sulphate without the production of sodium sulphate. In the impurity removal stage, LOH-MaxTM was found compatible with the L-Max®, and it can replace the subsequent standard industry sodium sulphate and lithium carbonate recovery circuits.
The commissioning of the pilot plant will take place in April 2019, and its operation will commence in May 2019.
As of 31 December 2018, Lepidico has a market capitalization of A$60 million with cash of A$8 million and no debt.
In the remaining period of FY2019, the company had planned to fast track the business to free cash flow generation. It will also include the demonstration of the commercial viability of L-Max® and LOH-MaxTM and also a globally significant, vertically integrated lithium chemical producer through the value chain from mine to battery grade lithium chemical.
By the closure of the trading session on 18 February 2019, the closing price of the stock was A$0.022 which was 15.789% above its previous trading dayâs closing price. The stock has a market capitalization of A$63.77 million and approximately 3.36 billion outstanding shares.
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