Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation has announced a $500,000 contribution to assist Avalon Advanced Materials with piloting and scaling up its proprietary process for recovering high purity lithium hydroxide from the lithium mineral petalite produced from the 100 per cent owned Separation Rapids Lithium Project near Kenora, in northwestern Ontario
Lithium hydroxide is in increasing demand as a critical material for manufacturing lithium ion battery cathodes needed for rapidly growing energy storage and electric vehicle markets.
Successful completion of the pilot plant process optimization work will allow Avalon to move forward on designing,
financing and constructing its planned Phase 1 demonstration plant.
Meanwhile, a five-hole, 1,470-metre drilling program by Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. at its Separation Rapids Lithium Project has confirmed that high-grade lepidolite mineralization comprises approximately 20 per cent of the known lithium resource and is open for expansion, with the balance having predominantly petalite as the principal lithium mineral.
Metallurgical testing has demonstrated that these minerals can be separately concentrated and used to generate different lithium derivative products, including both lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate, as well as technical grade lithium for glass applications. Avalon has identified markets for all of these lithium products, including an initial commitment on off-take for the lepidolite concentrate from Lepidico Ltd. The results of the spring drilling program will be incorporated into an updated resource estimate and technical report.
In addition to lithium mineralization, the Separation Rapids deposit contains significant tantalum, cesium and rubidium mineralization, all of which offer by-product opportunities.
