Almonty completes pilot plant trial production
2024-09-11 14:02 ET - News Release
Mr. Lewis Black reports
ALMONTY COMPLETES FINAL TECHNICAL REVIEW PRIOR TO PROCESSING PLANT EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION AT THE SANGDONG MINE
Almonty Industries Inc. has completed its pilot plant trial production, which marks the final stage of flotation processing technology development ahead of processing plant equipment installation at the company's Sangdong mine in South Korea.
The company has developed a specialized flotation technique tailored to the unique properties of Sangdong's tungsten ore through a tireless number of lab-scale and continuous process tests at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM). Scaling up this process required further verification on a larger scale. The pilot plant trial production was crucial not only for identifying potential challenges in the main plant but also for acquiring operational expertise prior to full-scale production.
Therefore, prior to the processing plant's construction, tungsten ore from the Sangdong mine was processed at two pilot plants, each representing 1/500th the size of the actual plant. The pilot plant trial production was conducted at two locations -- Portugal during September, 2023, and the Sangdong mine during July and August, 2024 -- validating the stability of the company's proprietary flotation processing technology.
These tests were carried out at the National Laboratory for Energy and Geology (LNEG) in Portugal, and at Sangdong, using equipment commissioned by the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. As a result, the company successfully produced tungsten concentrate (WO3) with a content of over 60 per cent.
In Portugal, the pilot plant mirrored most of the future industrial plant in Sangdong. The feed grade was around 0.45 per cent WO3 and the concentrates consistently exceeded 60 per cent of contained WO3, achieving recoveries around 82 per cent.
In Sangdong, although equipment limitations and lower-grade ore (below the 0.15-per-cent WO3 cutoff) presented challenges, a recovery of 86.3 per cent was achieved thanks to an improved flotation process and optimized reagent adjustment. In particular, during the sulphide flotation stage, which removes impurities, the tungsten grade improved. This indicates that the concentration of sulphide impurities, which are typical contaminants in tungsten concentrate, can be reduced, ensuring the future stability of 60 per cent to 65 per cent WO3 grades in concentrate production.
Based on these results, the company and its equipment supplier Metso Outotec are now comfortable to sign off on the processing having met all the design performance parameters. Additionally, the tests at Sangdong mine confirmed the potential to reduce reagent usage while maximizing efficiency.
Lewis Black, chairman, president and chief executive officer, commented: "With the successful completion of the pilot plant phase, all preliminary preparations related to process technology development and equipment performance validation have been finalized. With minor adjustments to the equipment and reagents at the processing plant currently under construction, we anticipate stable production of tungsten concentrate from our Sangdong mine during 2025. The time we have spent building and operating two pilot plants in Korea and Portugal has been essential to ensure the main plant works out the gate. We have been operating the two pilot plants for almost three years, so we have been able to refine and perfect the processing which will ensure a quick and smooth processing commissioning. We are a go."
About Almonty Industries Inc.
The principal business of Toronto-based Almonty Industries is the mining, processing and shipping of tungsten concentrate from its Los Santos mine in western Spain and its Panasqueira mine in Portugal, as well as the development of its Sangdong tungsten mine in Gangwon province, South Korea, and the development of the Valtreixal tin/tungsten project in northwestern Spain.
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