- XRD analysis confirms pure spodumene nature of Piedmont’s ore body
- Absence of petalite and lepidolite in pegmatites expected to lead to high lithium recovery
- Mineralogy consistent across Piedmont’s Core, Central, and Sunnyside properties
- Piedmont on-track to release Resource, Metallurgy and Scoping Study updates in the next 60 days
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Piedmont Lithium Limited (“Piedmont” or “Company”) is pleased to announce the completion of mineralogical analysis on samples of mineralized pegmatites and composite samples from Piedmont’s Core, Central, and Sunnyside Properties. All testwork to date effectively demonstrates that lithium occurs almost exclusively within spodumene in Piedmont’s mineral resource.
| Table 1: Average XRD Analysis Results from 46 Drill Core and Composite Samples of Piedmont Ore | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mineralogy | Average Wt. (%) of Mineral Types | ||||||||||||||||||
| Core Property | Central Property | Sunnyside Property | |||||||||||||||||
| Semi-quantitative Samples
(13 Samples) |
Quantitative Samples
(19 Samples) |
Composite Variability Samples
(10 Samples) |
Quantitative Samples
(3 Samples) |
Quantitative Sample
(1 Sample) |
|||||||||||||||
| Lithium-bearing minerals | Spodumene | 17.8 | 19.9 | 16.6 | 15.9 | 14.8 | |||||||||||||
| Petalite | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||||||
| Lepidolite | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||||||
| Zinnwaldite | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||||||
| Holmquistite | - | - | 0.5 | - | - | ||||||||||||||
| Non-lithium bearing minerals | 82.2 | 80.1 | 82.9 | 84.1 | 85.2 | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | ||||||||||||||
Piedmont has been advised that the character of its ore body is unusual and highly positive, which will allow for a simplified flowsheet to produce strong lithium recoveries. Many of the spodumene projects currently producing or under development contain multiple lithium-bearing minerals (petalite, lepidolite, zinnwaldite, etc. as well as spodumene).
Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “As the market’s understanding of lithium processing evolves, it will become increasingly clear that mineralogy and metallurgy are the fundamental building blocks of a successful hard-rock lithium business. Our testwork confirms what we have always suspected – the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt is exceptional not only in scale but in terms of mineralogy. When combined with the shallow nature of our ore body and the capital and operating cost advantages of our location, we are excited about the upcoming resource, metallurgical and scoping study updates.”
