TSX-listed junior miner Frontier Lithium and XPS Expert Process Solutions – a Glencore company − have started mini-pilot plant operations at their research and development centre in Falconbridge, Ontario, and at other off-site locations.

Frontier last year awarded XPS the contract to jointly build and operate the pilot plant at its Falconbridge facility.

Sample preparation and concentrate production have recently been completed, pyrometallurgical processing has commenced and final hydrometallurgical circuit construction and commissioning is currently taking place.

The goal of the pilot plant is to directly produce lithium hydroxide from the PAK Lithium project resource. The PAK project contains a large, high-grade lithium resource and is located in an emerging premium lithium mineral district located in the Great Lakes region of northern Ontario.

The mini-pilot plant is configured to produce high quality lithium-bearing pregnant leach solution that is suitable for continuous crystallisation by a reputable off-site third party with the objective of demonstrating the production of high-purity battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate from a steady-state process.

This pilot project is being undertaken to alleviate the financial and technical risks associated with scaling-up of Frontier's patent pending lithium extraction process which is under an International Patent Cooperation Treaty filing.

The pilot project aims to generate high-purity battery-grade lithium hydroxide chemical which will be used as marketing samples of the product and will also provide essential data required for a future prefeasibility study to be conducted by the company. The final crystallisation work is expected to be completed in the spring.

Frontier president and CEO Trevor Walker says 2020’s preliminary test results showed the lithium extraction technology to be viable at bench-scale.

“The initial commissioning of the pilot represents a significant milestone. [It also] marks the culmination of extensive research and development into a flowsheet that could process spodumene concentrates directly to lithium hydroxide chemicals without employing a lithium carbonate intermediate.”