Piedmont Lithium Limited (“Piedmont” or “Company”) is pleased to announce updated Mineral Resource estimates for mineral by-products quartz, feldspar and mica from spodumene bearing pegmatites on the Company’s wholly-owned Core property located within the world-class Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt (“TSB”) in North Carolina, USA (refer Table 1). This is an update to the initial by-product Mineral Resource estimate reported in September 2018.
By-Product Mineral Resource estimates were based on normative mineralogy compositions from 326 drill holes previously analyzed for lithium. The resource details for quartz, feldspar and mica are shown in Table 1. The Mineral Resource estimates have been prepared by independent consultants, CSA Global Pty Ltd (“CSA Global”) and are reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012 Edition).
Table 1: Mineral Resource Estimates for By-Products – Piedmont Lithium Project | |||||||
Category | Tonnes
| Quartz | Feldspar | Mica | |||
Grade
| Tonnes (Mt) | Grade
| Tonnes (Mt) | Grade
| Tonnes (Mt) | ||
Indicated | 12.5 | 30.0 | 3.75 | 44.4 | 5.55 | 4.5 | 0.56 |
Inferred | 12.6 | 28.7 | 3.61 | 44.4 | 5.58 | 4.4 | 0.56 |
Total | 25.1 | 29.3 | 7.36 | 44.4 | 11.13 | 4.5 | 1.12 |
In June 2019, the Company reported an updated lithium Mineral Resource for the Core property of 25.1 million tonnes (“Mt”) at a grade of @ 1.09% Li2O. The by-products and lithium Mineral Resource estimates utilize the same geologic model. Piedmont is now updating the Project’s Scoping Study which will include the updated by-product resources and the June 2019 lithium resource.
Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The historic lithium mines in the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt generated a material portion of their economics from the sale of by-product minerals quartz, feldspar and mica to the large, local southeastern US industrial markets. These markets have continued to grow, and are currently served in part by high-cost imported material. We expect by-products to represent a significant – and unique – opportunity for Piedmont, and I would note that in our Scoping Study dated September 12, 2018 the by-product credits effectively reduced our cash production costs of lithium hydroxide by more than $750/t, and we expect a similar impact in our study update due next week.”
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Contacts:
T: +1 973 809 0505
E: kphillips@piedmontlithium.com
