Ardiden Ltd (ASX:ADV) DMS Testwork Produces High-Grade Lithium Concentrate

Grades of up to 6.43% Li2O from latest lab DMS testwork confirms project's commercial potential

Diversified minerals explorer and developer Ardiden Limited (ASX:ADV) is pleased to advise that it has received further highly encouraging metallurgical testwork results from Independent Metallurgical Operations (IMO), based in Perth, Western Australia, for a composite bulk sample obtained from the North Aubry prospect at its majority-owned Seymour Lake Lithium Project in Ontario.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- High-grade lithium concentrate of up to 6.43% Li2O produced from latest lab Dense Media Separation (DMS) testwork on drill core samples from the Seymour Lake Lithium Project in Canada.

- High Li2O recovery of 91% achieved.

- Variability testwork currently underway with a range of drilling hole samples from the North Aubry prospect.

- The most recent testwork again verifies that the spodumene particles are well-liberated at a very coarse particle size.

- Testwork is continuing to develop a suitable processing flowsheet.

Ardiden confirms that the lab Dense Media Separation (DMS) tests conducted at a specific gravity of 2.80 produced an overall concentrate grade of 5.97% Li2O with recovery of 90.8% (refer to Table 2 & 3 in the link below).

The initial testing of the spodumene ore used a very coarse crush size of 9.5 mm which produced a concentrate of 6.43% Li2O with a recovery of over 75%. Ardiden notes that the recovery was lower than expected due to a portion of the spodumene crystals being misplaced, as the lab Dense Media Cyclone had difficulty managing the coarse crush size.

Second stage of DMS tests produced the overall concentrate grade of 5.97% Li2O with recovery of 90.8% at crushing size of 3.35mm. Staged crushing reduced the 0.5 mm material produced, therefore additional processing is not required.

The Company notes that the coarse spodumene concentrate will lead to reduced processing costs and will create a greater variety of potential applications, which in turn should attract premium prices from potential end-users, which may improve the project economic value.

A comparison between the previous Heavy Liquid Separation (HLS) testwork conducted by IMO on these spodumene samples and this round of DMS testwork, found that the HLS test was conducted at a similar specific gravity of 2.70 and with a crush size of less than 3.35 mm. The HLS achieved a concentrate grade of 5.88% Li2O and with a recovery of 83.0%, which is comparable to the results achieved with the DMS testwork.

IMO also noted the significant presence of Micas in the spodumene concentrate sample at the coarse crushing size of 9.5mm. Ardiden will undertake additional testwork on the Micas to better understanding of the material and whether this material could improve the Li2O recovery and concentrate grade.

The lab DMS testwork results from the drill core samples provided to IMO, have again indicated that the spodumene particles are well liberated at vary coarse particle size. Additional phase of testwork is more comprehensive and being undertaken on a broad range of ore samples with a range of head grades and locations. These tests will assist Ardiden to identify the most appropriate process to recover Li2O from the spodumene ore at the Seymour Lake project.

Ardiden considers these current laboratory DMS tests to be extremely encouraging, having replicated similar results to those obtained from the earlier HLS metallurgical tests, announced on 9 February 2017, which demonstrated the ability to produce very high-grade lithium concentrate with grades of up to 7.73% Li2O.

The composite sample was obtained by combining drill cores from three separate locations across the North Aubry Prospect (refer to Figure 2 in the link below).

Ardiden confirms the laboratory DMS tests has again provided additional specific data which helps to determine the physical properties of samples and provides guidance with characterising the parameters of ore processing. The lab DMS tests also help to predict the recovery of Li2O.

The DMS tests were conducted on the composite sample of drill cores obtained from diamond drill holes SL-09-33, SL-09-27A and SL-09-45 and after crushing to 100% and passing 9.5mm, 6.7mm and 3.35mm.

The interpolated recoveries and Li2O concentrate grade at each crush size for the samples are tabulated below in Tables 2 and 3 (see the link below).

Ardiden notes these are highly encouraging results for preliminary DMS assessments. Metallurgical variability of the deposit will be investigated in future test work programs.

The next phase of the metallurgical testwork program will allow Ardiden to investigate the lithium recovery and various extraction process options including gravity, flotation and magnetic separation processes to develop an optimum process flowsheet for the project.

Ardiden looks forward to providing further updates as they come to hand.

To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/38723NFJ


About Ardiden Ltd

Ardiden Limited (ASX:ADV) is an emerging international diversified exploration and development company possessing a mature multi-element asset portfolio, with a near term development pipeline, focused quality projects located in the established mining jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada.

 

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