Tag: battery metals australia

Lithium mica concentrates will be tested in a SiLeach pilot plant. Image: Lithium Australia.   BY ELIZABETH FABRI   LITHIUM Australia will commence testing lithium mica to determine if the material has potential to become base feedstock for its proposed large-scale pilot plant (LSPP) in WA.   Lithium mica, long considered a waste material by the mining industry, will be sourced from one of two sites in the Eastern Goldfields, and tested at ANSTO Minerals’ (a division of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Lucas Heights laboratories in Sydney. Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said WA’s lithium fields hosted abundant pegmatites, many of which contained lithium micas. He said the company had already undertaken substantial bench-scale test work...

BY ELIZABETH FABRI   ASK any analyst for their best performing commodities of the year, and nickel will be on the list. The base metal is enjoying a stellar year – its price has increased 75 per cent in the last 12 months – as it reinvents itself as a commodity of the future.   A new cohort of nickel juniors are advancing exploration in Australia to capitalise on rising prices. At the end of June, nickel was hovering around the $US15,000 per tonne mark; a sizable increase from the $US8931 it was fetching a year prior. And if forecasts are anything to go by, demand for the metal is expected to increase by a further 50 per cent to...