THE LEADER VOLUME 11 • NUMBER 9
Founder and Publisher John Chadwick B . Sc . Min Eng Email : john @ im-mining . com
Editor Paul Moore B . Sc ( Hons ), M . Sc . Email : paul @ im-mining . com
Editorial Board Professor Malcolm Scoble Robert E . Hallbauer Chair in Mining Engineering ., University of BC , Vancouver
Peter Knights Professor and Head of Division of Mining
Stephen Stone West One Management Perth , Western Australia
Dr . Andrew M . Robertson President , Robertson GeoConsultants Vancouver , Canada .
Ed McCord Project Consultant Caterpillar Global Mining , USA
Jason Nitz Fleet Management & Dispatch Superintendent Newmont Mining Corporation , USA
Dr Terry Mudder Managing Director , TIMES Ltd , USA
Simon Tarbutt Consultant , Santiago , Chile
Dr . Mike Daniel Comminution Process Consultant CMD Consulting Pty Ltd
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International Mining ( ISSN No : 1747-146X ) is published monthly by Team Publishing Ltd , GBR and is distributed in the USA by Asendia USA , 17B South Middlesex Avenue , Monroe NJ 08831 and additional mailing offices . Periodicals postage paid at New Brunswick NJ . POSTMASTER : send address changes to International Mining , 17B South Middlesex Avenue , Monroe NJ 08831
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ISSN 1747 -146X
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Adding extra value and downstream technologies
The mining industry has been known to receive criticism from host governments for not adding enough value to mined products that have been extracted in that country .
With the current boom in high-tech metals and materials such as lithium , cobalt , rare earths and particularly graphite , we are seeing a slightly different trend – that of mining companies developing high-tech processing methods and getting into final product delivery . The following are just a few of the many examples out there .
Troy Grant , President and CEO of Elcora Advanced Materials Corp , for example , last month announced that that the company has developed proprietary technology in order to reduce or eliminate several stages of the lithium ion battery anode manufacturing process . This technology has the potential to eliminate most of the graphite preparation stages prior to incorporation into anodes .
“ With the significant increases in the electric car market over the next ten years , this is an exciting focus on downstream technologies to maximise value ,” says Grant .
The traditional method of graphite preparation for anodes includes spheronisation , purification and coatings . The Elcora processes are designed to reduce or eliminate each of these stages with the goal of reducing the carbon and energy footprint of the anodes and to reduce costs .
“ This move is part of Elcora ’ s vertical integration strategy of added value processing to maximise returns ,” said Grant .
Focus Graphite , developing the Lac Knife deposit in Canada explains that the traditional purification process involves heating the graphite to in excess of 2,000 ° C and essentially distilling off the impurities . “ There is a high-energy cost and some loss of graphite . The Focus process reacts the graphite at a much lower temperature ( less than 1,200 ° C ) with gaseous chlorine compounds . The impurities are converted to chlorides which distil off at much lower temperatures , lower energy and no loss of graphite . Chemicals used are recycled and are relatively inexpensive . The purpose of the company ’ s R & D fine flake production process program is to meet battery manufacturers ’ needs for a novel , high-grade , high purity graphite that increases performance while reducing their input costs .”
Talga Resources ’ patent application over its Coating composition and manufacturing method allows it to enter into formal metal pre-treatment knowledge sharing undertakings and expand the company ’ s intellectual property . As part of the company ’ s IP initiatives , it has also moved to globally trademark ‘ Talphene ’ and ‘ Talphite ’ as Talga ’ s respective brands for industrial scale graphene and micro-graphite products . Talphene™ and Talphite™ will form the marketing platform for Talga ’ s products manufactured via its unique production technology .
Australian resources company TNG has trademarked its TIVAN hydrometallurgical process developed for its 100 % -owned Mount Peake ironvanadium-titanium project in the Northern Territory . Using hydrometallurgy , the TIVAN process has successfully extracted commercial grades of vanadium , titanium and iron from the Mount Peake deposit .
The TIVAN process uses a combination of acid leaching , SX and chemical stripping to selectively recover the valuable metals . In July , joint venturers Neometals Ltd and Mineral Resources Ltd took a major step towards commercialisation of their patented ELi Process that could see low cost battery grade lithium products produced from spodumene concentrate sourced from the Mt Marion project near Kalgoorlie .
Results of a feasibility study , following a positive prefeasibility study in 2012 , have confirmed the proposed production project is technically feasible and economically viable .
The ELi Process converts spodumene concentrate into a high purity lithium chloride solution , then uses electrolysis to produce high purity lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate , both high value products used in the lithium ion battery industry . The technology is owned and being developed by Reed Advanced Materials , which is 70 % owned by Neometals and 30 % owned by MRL .
At its 100 % owned Salar del Rincón commercial lithium carbonate development project , located in the Province of Salta , Argentina , Enirgi Group President and CEO , Wayne Richardson , unveiled a strategy to develop and invest in lithium production in Argentina using the company ' s proprietary Direct Extraction Process Technology ( DEP Technology ) for lithium brines .
He commented that plans are well advanced “ and through the development of our disruptive DEP Technology , we are able to produce high quality lithium product from raw brine to bag within 24 hours , radically reducing the processing time through the elimination of pre-concentration ponds . Not only does this ensure efficient use of capital , we believe that our process yields the highest recovery rates in the industry and has a very low environmental impact .”
Altech Chemicals is aiming to become one of the world ' s leading suppliers of 99.99 % ( 4N ) high purity alumina ( HPA ) ( Al2O3 ). HPA is a high-value , high margin and highly demanded product as it is the critical ingredient required for the production of artificial sapphire . Artificial sapphire is used in the manufacture of substrates for LED lights , semiconductor wafers used in the electronics industry , and scratch-resistant artificial sapphire glass used for wristwatch faces , optical windows and smartphone components . There is no substitute for HPA in the manufacture of artificial sapphire .
It is aiming to build a 4,000 t / y HPA plant at Tanjung Langsat , Malaysia , producing HPA directly from kaolin clay , which will be sourced from its deposit at Meckering , Western Australia . The process will employ conventional “ off-the-shelf ” plant equipment to extract HPA using a hydrochloric ( HCl ) acid-based process . Production costs are anticipated to be considerably lower than established HPA producers .
John Chadwick Founder john @ im-mining . com
SEPTEMBER 2016 | International Mining 3