AfriTin Mining plans to set up a lithium pilot plant at its Uis mine before the end of the year.
The miner has already appointed South African company, Consulmet as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management contractor for designing and constructing a 20 tonnes per hour pilot plant at Uis, with a target commissioning date in Q4 2022.
“ The pilot plant is intended as a proof of concept for a full-scale, integrated lithium beneficiation circuit, which would be added to the existing processing plant,” the listed company said.
AfriTin said the, “the petalite lithium concentrate produced from the pilot plant is intended for initial sales into premium glass and ceramic markets, and test material for existing and/or prospective converters of lithium ore concentrates to battery-grade lithium.”
This comes as metallurgical test work results show the successful production of a petalite lithium concentrate, indicating the potential for a lithium byproduct at the company’s flagship Uis Mine.
The concentrate is expected to meet demand from premium glass and ceramics manufacturers, and be suitable feedstock for battery-grade lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide converters, the company stated.
The lithium resource is contained within the currently mined orebody, and the lithium concentrate will be a by-product to existing tin concentrate.
AfriTin has included lithium mining in its Phase 2 preliminary economic assessment for Uis released in late April.
AfriTin is aiming for a full-scale integrated lithium beneficiation circuit to be implemented in 2024.
