Aspiring Canadian manganese sulphate producer Manganese X Energy Corp says it will advance work on ore sorting after “very promising” initial test results on material from its Battery Hill deposit in New Brunswick.
Manganese X, a market minnow that announced a C$2 million investment from Eric Sprott earlier this month, put out a positive 2022 preliminary economic assessment on the proposed circa-US$350 million Battery Hill project that had up to 84,000 tonnes a year of high-purity manganese sulphate (HPMSM) production being built on a small, one million tonnes per annum openpit mine.
Ore sorting study testing by ABH Engineering is said to have demonstrated “more than 95% effectiveness in sorting valuable rocks from waste”. Its test program used a sample set grading 7.7% manganese. Two sorting technologies yielded product grades of 12.9% and 12% manganese with reject grades of 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively. Phase two ore sorting testwork will feed into Manganese X’s prefeasibility study that is due to start next quarter.
“We believe that these results are very promising and as a result we are undertaking more intensive tests in phase two so as to prove the economic potential of the sorting technology being used,” CEO Martin Kepman said. “The benefits of effective ore sorting technology can be numerous.”
They include reduced energy and water consumption, resource expansion through cut-off grade reduction and potential mine life growth and higher total metal production. Manganese X says reduced overall capex includes a lower tailings storage capacity need.
“The Manganese X results are extremely promising,” Brent Hilcher, vice president of mineral processing at ABH Engineering, said.
“Two different technologies have been shown to be able to very effectively sort high-grade rocks from waste rocks. In the detailed testing the work showed the sensor and predictive algorithms make very few mistakes, indicating this will be a sorting application with well above average efficiency.”
Manganese X has a current market value of about C$13 million.
