KDR (ASX) Charlie Aitken note today

Originally posted by eshmun ↑

@Old gill

I don't want to open old wounds here so please keep doing your own research.

My figure came before the block model and the zonation model came into existence.

I got the 52% figure from the initial metallurgical report.

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/an...3168155/page-45?post_id=21942428#.W3tX98K6ztQ

The deeper part of the deposit contains more petalite. If you read your extract it says 13% mixed spodumene and petalite, and 11% petalite. That comes from the intersection of the block model and zonation model "within the pit shell". Do you know if that is the LOM pit shell or the stage 1 pit shell that your extract is referencing?

In any respect I'd say if they ran the resource deeper the proportion of pelatite would probably increase towards that 52% figure. The petalite zones increase with depth.

There was also the below (from before the initial metallurgical announcement) from the maiden resource announcement. The existence of petalite and other Li2O minerals in the deposit was already known before the metallurgy was done (using microanalysis techniques).

"The mineralogy, undertaken by Micronanalysis Australia Pty Ltd, has confirmed the
presence of spodumene (8% Li2O) as well as some petalite (4.5% Li2O) and minor amounts of eucryptite (11.9% Li2O)."

I also previously found some information on the Zimbabwean petalite deposit here

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/an...168155/page-2?direction=previous#.W3tVWcK6ztQ

The recovery process involved roasting a preheated concentrate with acid followed by water leaching and precipitation of the lithium carbonate. At that stage it was all still experimental. I haven't followed the story. Are they at a pilot plant stage yet or in commercial production? Esh

Expand

thanks for the reply @eshmun, can understand not wanting to go back over these things. as you say, there is no indication of where in the deposit the petalite is, and how it develops over depth. nor wether the levels mentioned are purely in stage one or for the whole deposit. not that I can find anyway, which I suppose is the root of your concern. if they are not being fully forthright about the quality of the deposit, it is indeed a pretty big problem. another thing to go on my "to be explained in the DFS list". thanks for pointing it out. as for the Zimbabwean petalite, like I said I have only just skimmed the surface, but I think it was a test batch sent for testing, not at pilot plant scale. I'll try follow up this week and share anything I think is useful. have a great day