FBM leaps into metallurgical work for Kangaroo Hills lithium...

FBM leaps into metallurgical work for Kangaroo Hills lithium project

Future Battery Minerals will soon start metallurgical testwork aimed at understanding what makes the thick, spodumene-bearing pegmatites at its Kangaroo Hills lithium project tick.

The company has appointed Minsol Engineering as the lead metallurgical and engineering consultant for the project and tasked it with managing the early-stage metallurgical test work to understand the characteristics and processing requirements of the mineralised pegmatite discovered in March this year.

Future Battery Minerals (ASX:FBM) had earlier this week announced that diamond drilling had intersected multiple, near-surface spodumene-bearing pegmatites with widths of up to 23.8m.

The five holes were drilled as a follow-up to test the thick high-grade lithium pegmatite e identified by previous reverse circulation drilling which returned assays such as 27m at 1.32% Li2O and 29m at 1.36% Li2O.

“Given the continued flow of positive results from our RC drilling campaign, we believe the timing is now right to begin early metallurgical testing activities,” technical director Robin Cox said.

“We hope these results will provide confirmation of the amenability of the diamond core to conventional lithium processing techniques, as well as additional mineralogy and characterisation data, which will be invaluable to our ongoing exploration activities.”

Minsol principal Robert Simmons added that preliminary assessments made on the diamond core samples have been very promising.

Kangaroo Hills testwork

Test work carried out on samples from Kangaroo Hills will seek to determine its amenability to froth Dense Media Separation, preliminary grain size and liberation assessments, as well as amenability to froth flotation.

Kangaroo Hills is part of the broader Nepean nickel project near Coolgardie that is operated by the company in joint venture with Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR) and was discovered during exploration drilling in late 2022.