VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed project developer Nemaska Lithium has received its final 6.3% lithium oxide (Li₂O) flotation concentrate from third party SGS Lakefield, allowing the Quebec City-based company to start commissioning its Stage 1 mineral extraction circuit at the 100%-owned Shawinigan demonstration plant.

This is the last phase of the five-stage plant to be commissioned, reflecting a critical milestone for the company.

Nemaska also announced on Tuesday that it had produced dense media separation concentrate at an average grade of 6.3% Li₂O.

“A concentrate of this calibre is considered very high grade. An offtake for lower-grade spodumene concentrate was recently arranged by one of its peers for up to $1 000/t of 6% Li₂O concentrate (record pricing). This helps de-risk the deposit and provides valuable back-up saleable material, if necessary,” said Eight Capital analyst David Talbot in a note to clients.

Nemaska Lithium has started processing spodumene concentrate from the Whabouchi mine through the thermal roasting section (calcination and acid baking) of the Phase 1 plant. It is expected to take about three to four weeks to build an inventory of lithium sulphate to begin processing into battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Processing will follow once there is a sufficient working inventory.

The plant has been busy upgrading 30 t of Johnson Matthey (JM) lithium sulphate into lithium hydroxide using Stages 2 through 5 in the plant. As a result, Nemaska has met specifications of its battery-making client, as JM previously released the last C$1-million of its plant funding.

“At the Phase 1 plant, the purification, electrolysis and crystallisation sections of the plant are performing very well, as evidenced by the 20 t of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, which has been produced using third-party lithium sulphate; it is of excellent quality as confirmed by our customer," stated Nemaska president and CEO Guy Bourassa.

The company is now pursuing financing for the C$549-million commercial Hydromet project. "We are in the fortunate position to have a number of excellent financing options on the table at the moment and we are currently weighing the merits of each to select the best scenario for our shareholders. We expect to be in a position to announce a project financing solution in the near future,” said Bourassa.