AZL General Discussion, page-4329

Arizona Lithium is all set to take its Big Sandy project forward in 2022 following successful metallurgical test work last year that drastically improved its economics.

The company had previously noted that bench-scale ore beneficiation work had successfully produced a concentrate containing 71% of the lithium in just 36% of the whole ore mass, which significantly reduces the tonnage of ore that needs to be moved offsite.

Testing of the concentrate also resulted in a notable reduction in the amount of acid consumption, which further enhances project economics.

Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) notes that ongoing test work is ramping up to produce larger quantities of beneficiated concentrate to increase the scale of the leaching tests enabling leach circuit optimisation.

It will also produce sufficient quantities of leach solutions for optimisation of purification methods and the production of battery grade lithium carbonate.

Additionally, work will be carried out to improve product quality and reduce operating costs by employing promising new technologies for leach solution purification using ion exchange, improved crystallisation methods for the final product, and late recovery of lithium from beneficiation waste.

“These excellent metallurgical results continue to demonstrate the high potential of the Big Sandy Lithium Project,” managing director Paul Lloyd commented.

“With the recent test results significantly reducing the planned tonnage of ore to be moved offsite, several additional infrastructure possibilities have now opened up for our assessment.

Importantly, this paves the way for the company to advance its scoping and pre-feasibility studies, a significant milestone in the development of the Big Sandy lithium project in Arizona.

“Given the large existing JORC compliant lithium resource that has excellent further upside potential, AZL’s ability to produce a high-quality product in Arizona, USA, in a market with rapidly increasing demand and price, along with quality infrastructure choices and proactive State and Federal Governments, it presents a highly promising future for Arizona Lithium and its shareholders.”

Big potential for growth

Big Sandy currently boasts an Indicated and Inferred JORC resource of 32.5 million tonnes grading 1,850 ppm Li for 320,800 tonnes Li2CO3 over just 4% of the total ground held by the company, which highlights the potential for exploration to substantially increase the size of the resource.

It is also well located between the major cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas and just 960km by sealed interstate highway from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada.

Arizona Lithium is currently awaiting Bureau of Land Management approval to start a program of 145 exploration holes and bulk sampling.