TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Battery-grade lithium producer Canada Lithium has appointed former FMC Corp process plant veteran Michael Seawright as the process plant manager of its Quebec lithium processing plant, near Val d'Or, with immediate effect.

Seawright's career spans more than three decades of process plant operations focused on producing a range of lithium products, including high-purity lithium carbonate.

Initially, in his career with Foote Mineral Company, he was employed at the lithium operations in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, working in the spodumene processing plants and quality control laboratories. FMC Corp subsequently appointed Seawright to its central lithium processing facility at Bessemer City, North Carolina, as production manager responsible for a number of its lithium products, including lithium chloride, pharmaceutical lithium carbonate, lithium metal, lithium bromide, lithium hypochlorite, specialty inorganic and lithium hydroxide circuits.

Two more former FMC personnel from Bessemer City, namely Pratt Ray and Eric Carter, would also provide significant additional technical expertise in the process engineering and mechanical maintenance areas, bolstering the Quebec lithium processing plant team.

SLOWER PLANT COMMISSIONING

Meanwhile, Canada Lithium said commissioning and first production at the Val d'Or mine and processing plant were ongoing.

However, despite mining operations continuing on their commissioning schedule and the mine currently holding more than 100 000 t of stockpiled ore available for crushing, commissioning of the process plant continued slower than planned.

As a result of the large stockpiles, mining production rates were being reduced to match process plant capacity and reduce working capital expenditure.

The company had dispatched the first shipments of battery-grade lithium product samples to China, Korea and Japan and more shipments were planned over the coming weeks.