Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2017) - International Lithium Corp. (TSXV: ILC) (the "Company" or "ILC") is pleased to announce that it has received a final report, "Proof of Concept Study — Lithium Recovery Using Membrane Separation" (the "Study") prepared by Synexus (Pty) Limited of South Africa ("Synexus").
The Study was conducted utilizing (filtered) raw brine from the Salar de Llullaillaico, location of the Mariana lithium brine joint venture project ("Mariana") in Salta, Argentina. Results from the Study indicate that the selective recovery of lithium directly from raw (filtered) brine, with the simultaneous rejection of other cation and anion species, using a proprietary lithium selective separation process (the "technology") is possible. Lithium was selectively recovered from the raw brine to produce lithium hydroxide ("LiOH"), a high value ingredient used directly in lithium battery manufacturing, as a final product.
Summary of Study Results:
- The use of the technology presents a possible alternative to the natural evaporation process currently proposed at Mariana.
- The technology could provide a process route to produce lithium hydroxide directly from the raw brine without the need to remove contaminants like magnesium by liming, as would be required in the natural evaporation process.
- Based on intitial estimates, the technology can achieve higher recoveries than natural evaporation even with relatively low concentrations of lithium.*
- Use of technolgy has the potentional to enable a considerable increase in production rate compared to evaporative ponds. Lithium is directly removed from the brine and the (spent) brine can be returned to the basin with little effect on the water balance.*
- With further refiningthe technology could also permit the recovery of potassium and other cations if desired.
* At present, the Mariana Project joint venture partners have not conducted any formal economic analyses on the project. Statements regarding comparisons of recoveries are based on initial bench scale tests for the natural evaporation process and for the selective membrane technology. Additional testing and scaling up of the process is required before any definitive statements regarding recoveries can be made, and projected capital and operating costs can be effectively modelled and compared. The information provided herein is to provide a minimum level of confidence that the selective membrane method presents a possible alternative to the natural evaporation method of lithium extraction from the brine and further study is warranted based on these results. The "Study" is not a preliminary economic assessment, preliminary feasibility study or feasibility study. Any economic analysis would have to be supported by a preliminary economic assessment, preliminary feasibility study or feasibility study. The reader is cautioned that the Mariana project is still at an exploration stage and there is no guarantee that an economic mining scenario will result and no mineral reserves have yet to be defined as per the standards of disclosure defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standard of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
At Mariana, the current focus for lithium extraction is to determine the break points of contaminants such as magnesium and sulphate in the natural evaporation process in order to define the timing of the liming process. Large quantities of lime and other reagents needed to neutralize the brine chemistry to prevent the loss of lithium through precipitation during the evaporation concentration process generally tend to have a severe negative impact on the economics of lithium brine operations.
In the case of the Mariana project, this new technology could provide an alternative to the currently adopted plan of using natural solar evaporation of producing a brine concentrate containing about 6% lithium that would be exported for refining.
This technology is proprietary to Synexus. It could be adjusted and configured for other brine deposits' unique chemistry, alleviating the need for costly and time consuming solution purification and pre-concentration steps such as required by natural solar evaporation.
"We consider this report very encouraging news for the advancement of our Mariana Lithium JV Project," commented Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of ILC.
Jonathan Findlay, a "Qualified Person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.
