QPM General Discussion Thread, page-556

The construction of the Lava Blue demonstration plant was almost completed 6 months ago, no news since.

Looking back over a few announcements.
The leaching circuit has been reduced from 6 to 4 hours.The test work is looking at counter current leaching. The nitric acid concentration has been reduced from 2.5 tonne per 1 tonne of ore to 1.8 tonne of acid a reduction of 28%.The acid will run at 56% concentration in the leach circuit, so this will be a big saving of solution requiring heating, less water and GAS.
The iron hydrolysis test work is looking at raising the pressure in the tanks to 10 bar, again this will reduce GAS consumption.The iron hydrolysis line is the biggest user of gas.