Alexander Mining PLC Research and Development Update (0009M)
25 April 2018 - 4:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAXM
RNS Number : 0009M
Alexander Mining PLC
25 April 2018
25 April 2018
Alexander Mining plc
("Alexander" or the "Company")
Research and Development Update
Alexander is pleased to provide an update on its research and
development activities.
Lithium - research and development joint venture
Alexander is pleased to announce an extension and expansion of
the Lithium Ore Processing Joint Venture ("JV") has been agreed
with Dr. Nicholas Welham. Dr. Welham has been Alexander's Principal
Technological Consultant for around 10 years and is a principal
inventor of the Company's proprietary AmmLeach(R) and
HyperLeach(TM) technologies.
Dr. Welham has recently identified some potential opportunities
which are not presently captured within the JV, which currently
covers the testing and development of a potential heap leaching
process for hard rock lithium ores. As a consequence, the JV will
now additionally investigate reducing the complexity and cost of
the conversion process from mineral to battery grade lithium
carbonate and/or hydroxide. There is continued and increasing
interest from the mining industry in hard rock sources of lithium,
including in some regions not generally known to be lithium rich,
to which the potential heap leaching processing technology could be
applicable.
Preliminary discussions with potential partners in the UK, rest
of Europe and Australia are underway with a view to increasing the
funding available for development stages subsequent to the initial
'proof of concept' stage from both private and governmental
sources. A further announcement will be made when new arrangements
are in place.
Given these new developments, the timing for reporting the
initial JV test results will be revised and reported upon in due
course.
HyperLeach(R)
Work on the HyperLeach(R) trials of a nickel-cobalt flotation
tailings sample will be undertaken in the next few weeks. The
successful completion of the project would allow Alexander to seek
significant funding to bring into rapid production a small scale,
low cost operation to produce battery grade nickel sulphate and
cobalt sulphate for sale into the battery market.
A second HyperLeach(R) trial is planned to run for the next few
months to examine the heap leaching of low grade copper sulphide
ore. Chalcopyrite bearing copper ores are notoriously slow to leach
under atmospheric conditions. HyperLeach(R) has been shown to leach
ground chalcopyrite ores and flotation concentrates very rapidly,
but the behaviour in a heap leach scenario has not been explored.
The decreasing head grade worldwide of chalcopyrite ores makes it
increasingly difficult to use flotation and smelting to
economically produce copper metal thereby opening up such ores to
lower cost options, such as heap leaching.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Martin Rosser
Chief Executive
Mobile: +44 (0) 7770 865
341
Alan Clegg
Non-Executive Chairman
Mobile: +90 543 533 0665
Alexander Mining plc
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7078 9566
Email: mail@alexandermining.com
Website: www.alexandermining.com
Northland Capital Partners
Limited
Matthew Johnson / Dugald
J Carlean
(Corporate Finance)
John Howes
(Corporate Broking)
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3861 6625
Turner Pope Investments
(TPI) Ltd
Andy Thacker
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3621 4120
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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