Pure Spodumene Nature of Piedmont Lithium Ore Body

  • XRD analysis confirms pure spodumene nature of Piedmont's ore body
    • Absence of petalite and lepidolite in pegmatites expected to lead to high lithium recovery
  • Mineralogy consistent across Piedmont's Core, Central, and Sunnyside properties
  • Piedmont on-track to release Resource, Metallurgy and Scoping Study updates in the next 60 days

Piedmont Lithium Limited ("Piedmont" or "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of mineralogical analysis on samples of mineralized pegmatites and composite samples from Piedmont's Core, Central, and Sunnyside Properties. All testwork to date effectively demonstrates that lithium occurs almost exclusively within spodumene in Piedmont's mineral resource.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190618005279/en/

Distribution of XRD Samples from Mineralized Pegmatites from Piedmont Properties (Graphic: Business  ...

Distribution of XRD Samples from Mineralized Pegmatites from Piedmont Properties (Graphic: Business Wire)

 
Table 1: Average XRD Analysis Results from 46 Drill Core and Composite Samples of Piedmont Ore
Mineralogy     Average Wt. (%) of Mineral Types
Core Property     Central Property     Sunnyside Property
    Semi-quantitative Samples

(13 Samples)

    Quantitative Samples

(19 Samples)

    Composite Variability Samples

(10 Samples)

    Quantitative Samples

(3 Samples)

    Quantitative Sample

(1 Sample)

Lithium-bearing minerals     Spodumene     17.8     19.9     16.6     15.9     14.8
Petalite     -     -     -     -     -
Lepidolite     -     -     -     -     -
Zinnwaldite     -     -     -     -     -
    Holmquistite     -     -     0.5     -     -
Non-lithium bearing minerals     82.2     80.1     82.9     84.1     85.2
Total     100     100     100     100     100
               

Piedmont has been advised that the character of its ore body is unusual and highly positive, which will allow for a simplified flowsheet to produce strong lithium recoveries. Many of the spodumene projects currently producing or under development contain multiple lithium-bearing minerals (petalite, lepidolite, zinnwaldite, etc. as well as spodumene).

Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "As the market's understanding of lithium processing evolves, it will become increasingly clear that mineralogy and metallurgy are the fundamental building blocks of a successful hard-rock lithium business. Our testwork confirms what we have always suspected – the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt is exceptional not only in scale but in terms of mineralogy. When combined with the shallow nature of our ore body and the capital and operating cost advantages of our location, we are excited about the upcoming resource, metallurgical and scoping study updates."

Click here to view the full ASX Announcement.

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