REG - Bradda Head Lithium - San Domingo Mineralogical Ore Sorting Study

Bradda Head LithiumAnnouncement

01/04/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 0068D  Bradda Head Lithium Ltd  01 April 2025

01 April, 2025

 

Bradda Head Lithium Ltd

("Bradda Head", "Bradda" or the "Company")

 

Positive Mineralogical Ore Sorting Study, San Domingo

 

Bradda Head Lithium Ltd (AIM:BHL), the North America-focused lithium
development group, is pleased to announce results from the  mineral particle
ore-sorting study announced in October 2024. The program, supervised by ABH
Engineering Inc., was conducted on a spodumene composite ore sample from San
Domingo's core drilling in 2023. The interpretive and preliminary bench-scale
results indicate the spodumene ore is amenable to ore sorting enhancement,
which can provide significant potential cost savings during mining
construction and operation, as well as identifying a low water usage quick and
efficient route to sustainable operation.

 

Highlights:

 

·    Results are indicative of potentially producing an in-country direct
shipping spodumene ore after particle mineral sorting and separation of wall
rock and waste material;

·  Waste product containing virtually 0% Lithium, a sellable aggregate
product for the local Arizona infrastructure demand;

·    Intermediate product containing low grade lithium would be stockpiled
for further treatment;

·    Recommendations to implement a Phase 2 test with a representative
bulk sample (300-500kg);

·    Examine economic optimization including potential stockpiling; and

·    Lowering resource cut-off grade.

 

Ian Stalker, Executive Chairman, commented:

"Bradda Head is keen to move as quickly as possible to operational mode on its
San Domingo pegmatite project in Arizona, leveraging the determination of the
US government to develop domestic production of strategic minerals including
lithium. This was most recently demonstrated with the Presidential Executive
Order issued on the 20 March, that clearly denotes benefits for junior miners
such as Bradda.

 

To this end, these mineral processing test results are positive indications of
the opportunity for potentially producing a saleable, intermediate concentrate
product that can be directly shipped. It would also be expected to greatly
reduce potential upfront capex costs and permitting demands.

 

Integrating mineral sorting early in the process can increase the grade,
reduce the amount of mining equipment, infrastructure, and time to produce a
saleable product.  The results build on the previously announced study (PR
November 20, 2023) that also highlighted the opportunity for the production of
a saleable Lithium 6.0% and/or Lithium 5.5% concentrate product via a gravity
process route, again at minimum capex demand and potential low operating
costs. The further benefit, unveiled by these results, of producing a lower
grade "ore sorted" concentrate is the minimum usage of water.

 

Bradda head continues to push ahead with its San Domingo Pegmatite project in
Arizona, USA not only to benefit from the ongoing 'America first' approach to
strategic minerals supply in country, but also to be in a position to be
operationally ready when the uptick comes in the lithium market in general."

 

As a study in advance of resource definition and future Preliminary Economic
Assessment ("PEA") investigations, this particle sorting work was enacted to
determine if the spodumene mineralization at San Domingo is amenable to
particle sorting. Additionally, this study can be used to identify potential
cost savings if mining is considered whilst incorporating new technology by
upgrading spodumene ores with minimal cost to the Company. While not
definitive, it provides BHL with the knowledge that our material could present
significant cost savings and upgradeable, saleable material.

 

Employing mineral ore sorting technology at San Domingo using either XRT
("X-ray transmission") or XRF ("X-ray fluorescence") can potentially
accomplish the following:

 

· Material submitted for analysis has great heterogeneity, producing a sharp
high-grade to low-grade drop off;

·  Sorting can lower the overall capital expenditures by reducing crushing
equipment;

·  Anticipated lower water usage due to dry process, limited washing;

·  Potential to produce a direct shipping ore at >2.0% Li(2)O, no DMS
("Dense Medium Separation") considered;

·  Potential to economically capture cesium and rubidium along with the
lithium in a single three-way sorting step at low capital and operating costs;

·  Financial model uses hypothetical tonnage of 2.5M tonnes at 0.80%
Li(2)O, 14-year mine life;

·  Mineral sorting can potentially upgrade run-of-mine material to above 2%
Li(2)O, and create either a waste or a low-grade stockpile;

·  Waste material created from the sorting process can be used as
aggregate; and

·  Primary rock crushing to <15cm needed under an XRF scanning model,
limiting aggressive crushing.

 

Sample Data Summary

BHL selected material from the San Domingo project in Arizona to investigate
optionality and benefits of early stage spodumene ore sorting. BHL decided to
analyze roughly 15kg of 15-30mm crushed spodumene ore, composited from drill
holes on the Jumbo target. This material was unused from our initial
metallurgical study on Jumbo drill core, published November 20, 2023. The 2023
metallurgical study determined our medium grade spodumene ore, running at
1.03% Li(2)O can produce a 6.0% Li(2)O concentrate from ¼" crushed material
using DMS and 50.3% lithium recovery, see PR for further details.

 

This study commenced with 117 hand selected samples that were initially
scanned with an XRF by consultants ABH Engineering, followed by XRT scanning
at the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC") laboratory with a Tomra COM
Tertiary sorter. Samples were subsequently analyzed by sodium peroxide fusion
(with ICP-MS finish) at SGS Laboratories in Burnaby, B.C. Canada. The
geochemical results from SGS are exceptional, reporting a combined average is
1.57% Li(2)O (7,273 ppm Li), including 17 samples that were deliberately
selected for their wall rock waste material characteristics. Excluding the 17
wall rock samples, the remaining 100 samples average 1.84% Li(2)O (8,560ppm
Li) having a range of 10 to 31,621 ppm Li (0.002 to 6.81% Li(2)O). The
selection process for the 100 samples was partly subjective such that 10
samples were selected with obvious clean spodumene, 10 samples of obvious
low-grade pegmatite material, then the remaining 80 samples selected randomly.

 

Other elements worth mentioning with exceptional high values are cesium (2
samples at >1.0%), beryllium, and rubidium (15 samples at >1000 ppm),
all of which could be considered by-products given the ability to discriminate
during ore sorting. There is the potential to capture these three elements
using the XRF mineral sorting, producing a separate stockpile, and adding
significant value to the project.

 

XRF Analysis

The multi-element XRF readings were used to predict the presence and absence
of lithium in samples. Lithium cannot be detected directly by current XRF
sorting technologies,  therefore elements with atomic number higher than 20
that are associated with lithium are used to generate a multi-element XRF
algorithm using positive correlation of lithium with tin, and an inverse
correlation of lithium with iron and rubidium readings. Two scans per sample
were taken with the values averaged to obtain the multi-element XRF readings.
The results from the XRF scanning are preliminary but show a great potential
for using the sensor to high grade run-of-mine material and remove waste.

 

XRT Analysis

The XRT analysis was conducted with a TOMRA COM Tertiary sorter machine which
utilizes AI-enhanced algorithms to interpret the results. The 117 samples were
individually scanned using the Tomra machine, creating X-ray images with
pixels of each particle that are classified into 11 density categories (0 to
9) based on the particle's density. There are minor but detectable differences
in density within the pegmatite samples, and a clear difference between the
pegmatite and greenstone wall rock.

 

The results indicate both XRT and XRF work very well by discriminating the
difference between ore and waste, critical for ore sorting. As the
hypothetical feed grade used in this study is 0.80% Li(2)O, the actual grade
of the material in this study is 1.6%, thus, was corrected to match the
hypothetical feed grade of 0.80%. Preliminary results strongly support
utilization of mineralogical ore sorting using either method although one
potential advantage with the XRF is its ability to analyze for other elements
such as cesium, rubidium, and beryllium. All three of these elements are
locally very anomalous to ore-grade and could be recovered as byproducts to
the lithium. Integration of the XRF sorting technology could achieve this in a
single three-way sorting step.

 

QAQC

Metallurgical samples were originally sent to SGS Lakefield, Ontario, Canada
where they were crushed to 3/8(th) inch sizes. The sample were in custody at
SGS since June, 2023. The bulk sample was subsequently sent to ABH Engineering
in February for grain segregation and sample selection. Each sample was
analysed with an ElvaX Prospector 3 Advanced instrument and data recorded per
sample number. The individual sample grains were then placed in sealed plastic
baggies and labelled twice to avoid sample mix-up. The samples were sent to
the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) for XRT analysis of each sample. Once
completed, the samples were shipped by SRC directly to SGS Laboratories in
Burnaby, B.C., Canada where samples were prepped and analysed using sodium
peroxide fusion combined ICP-AES and ICP-MS, method GE_ICM90A50. Mr. Wilkins
consents to the inclusion of the technical information in this release and
context in which it appears.

 

Qualified Person (Bradda Head)

Joey Wilkins, B.Sc., P.Geo., is Chief Operating Officer at Bradda Head and
the Qualified Person who reviewed and approved the technical disclosures in
this news release. Mr Wilkins is a graduate of the University of
Arizona with a B.Sc. in Geology with more than 39 years of experience in
mineral exploration and is a qualified person under the AIM Rules and a
Qualified Person as defined under NI-43-101. Mr Wilkins consents to the
inclusion of the technical information in this release and context in which it
appears.

Glossary of Terms

 

·    Heterogeneity: The quality or state of being diverse in character or
content

·    XRT: X-Ray: Transmission

·    XRF: X-Ray: Fluorescence

·    Spodumene: Lithium inosilicate, pyroxene family, chemical formula:
LiAlSi2O6

·    Capex: Capital Expenditure

·    DMS: Dense Media Separation

·    ICP-MS: Induced coupled plasma-mass spectrometer

·    TOMRA ROM Tertiary Sorter: Brand and maker of mineral sorter,
Run-Of-Mine
applicationshttps://www.tomra.com/mining/products/machines/com-xrt-2

·    ElvaX Prospector 3 Advanced:
https://elvatech.com/products/prospector-3/
(https://elvatech.com/products/prospector-3/)

 

 

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE MARKET
ABUSE REGULATION (EU No. 596/2014) AS IT FORMS PART OF UK DOMESTIC LAW BY
VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018. UPON THE PUBLICATION OF
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE, THIS INSIDE
INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SUCH PERSONS
SHALL THEREFORE CEASE TO BE IN POSSESSION OF INSIDE INFORMATION.

 

For further information please visit the Company's
website: www.braddaheadltd.com (http://www.braddaheadltd.com/) .

 

 

ENDS

 Contact:

 

 Bradda Head Lithium Limited                       Panmure Liberum   Shard Capital

                                Beaumont Cornish                                                    Tavistock

 Company                        Nomad              Joint Broker      Joint Broker                   Investor Relations
 Ian Stalker, Executive Chair   James Biddle /     Rauf Munir        Damon Heath / Isabella Pierre  Nick Elwes /

 Denham Eke, Finance Director   Roland Cornish                                                      Josephine Clerkin
 +44 1624 639 396               +44 20 7628 3396   +44 20 7886 2500  +44 207 186 9927               + 44 20 7920 3150

                                                                                                    braddahead@tavistock.co.uk

 

About Bradda Head Lithium Ltd.

Bradda Head Lithium Ltd. is a North America-focused lithium development
group. The Company currently has interests in a variety of projects, the most
advanced of which are in Central and Western Arizona: The Basin
Project (Basin East Project, and the Basin West Project) and the Wikieup
Project.

 

The Basin East Project has a Measured Mineral Resource of 20 Mt at an
average grade of 929 ppm Li for a total of 99 kt LCE and an Indicated
Mineral Resource of 122 Mt at an average grade of 860 ppm Li and an
Inferred Mineral Resource of 499 Mt at an average grade of 810 ppm Li for a
total of 2.81 Mt LCE. The Group intends to continue to develop its three
phase one projects in Arizona, whilst endeavouring to unlock value at its
other prospective pegmatite and brine assets in Arizona, Nevada,
and Pennsylvania. All of Bradda Head's licences are held on a 100% equity
basis and are in close proximity to the required infrastructure. Bradda Head
is quoted on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange with the ticker of BHL.

 

Forward-Looking Statements

Beaumont Cornish Limited ("Beaumont Cornish") is the Company's Nominated
Adviser and is authorised and regulated by the FCA. Beaumont Cornish's
responsibilities as the Company's Nominated Adviser, including a
responsibility to advise and guide the Company on its responsibilities under
the AIM Rules for Companies and AIM Rules for Nominated Advisers, are owed
solely to the London Stock Exchange. Beaumont Cornish is not acting for and
will not be responsible to any other persons for providing protections
afforded to customers of Beaumont Cornish nor for advising them in relation to
the proposed arrangements described in this announcement or any matter
referred to in it.

 

 

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