News Articles for Neometals

At least $1.6 billion of equity has been raised by WA-linked critical minerals hopefuls in the past five years, but achieving consistent returns is another battle.

Neometals lithium-ion battery recycling arm has successfully extracted a nickel sulphate solution with more than 99.9% purity in testwork that has far exceeded its scoping study assumptions. The company's hydrometallurgical, patent-pending, battery metals recycling technology extracted a nickel product at a recovery rate of 98%. The work brings Neometals a step closer to a commercial-scale lithium battery recycling operation with a pilot plant due by the end of the year.

Strategic minerals developer, Neometals, has hit the hydrometallurgical jackpot at its Barrambie project in WA, with recent test work recovering a whopping plus-99% titanium from its current processing flowsheet. The uber-successful WA minerals developer has now confirmed that it can successfully recover high purity hydrated titanium dioxide, or titanium hydrolysate, from Barrambie's ores, potentially exposing it to both the titanium pigment and metals markets.

Neometals is continuing its push into nickel with the expeditious upgrading of its inferred nickel resource at the Munda deposit, which is now a strategic part of the company's Mt Edwards project near Widgiemooltha in WA. The update has significantly impacted Mt Edwards' growing inventory, boosting its contained nickel resources to over 130,400t of contained metal, clearing the way for mining studies.

Neometals is one step closer to a commercial-scale lithium battery recycling plant after it executed a binding memorandum of understanding agreement with mammoth German engineering firm, SMS Group. The companies will work jointly to assess the next phase of development test work on Neometals' proprietary battery recycling technology. The new partners are proposing to form a 50/50 JV, following due diligence with a view to constructing a demonstration plant.

Neometals continues to confirm the high-grade tenor of its Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project in WA's Goldfields on the back of some encouraging diamond drilling assay results from its recently acquired Munda deposit, where one hole returned 8.3 metres at 2.16% nickel from 93m down-hole, including an impressive 2.3m @ 6.11% nickel from 99m at the base of the ultramafic unit.

Neometals has taken a significant step towards establishing its massive Barrambie, titanium-vanadium project in the Murchison region of WA. The company has strengthened its ties with leading Chinese metallurgical expert IMUMR. The joint venture partners are now looking to establish a hydrometallurgical demonstration plant for the deposit and possibly, a subsequent 50:50 JV production arrangement going forward.

Neometals has entered into a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese research organisation to jointly advance development of the miner's Barrambie titanium-vanadium project.

ASX-listed Neometals has intersected massive nickel sulphides at its Mt Edwards project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia with drilling returning a cracking intersection of 4m @ 6.3% nickel within a broader 11m @ 2.6% nickel from 108m down-hole at the Zabel prospect. Drilling at the Lake Eaton tenement also showed elevated nickel grades along strike of Mincor Resources' high‐grade Cassini nickel deposits.

Our weekly appointment wrap includes Rick Newnham, Brendan Acott, Tyron Hayes, Danny Murphy, Cameron Syme, Kristy Ryan, Paul Martin, Kenn Donohoe, Helen Sarcich, Nick Houldsworth, Matthew Read, Gary Thomas, Lucy Mengler, Rachel Horton, Richard Lilly, Lauren Haygarth, Donna Marsh, Peta Rapson, Stephanie Driscoll, Maree Ferguson, Susan Oldmeadow-Hall, Danny Olsen, Mark Giuffre, Timothy John, Melissa Reid, Jackson Wheeler, Daniel Butler, Tamara Arapovic, Garry Zacher, and Tamica D'Uva.

Neometals' synthetic zeolite product generated from lithium hydroxide production waste, has held its own against similar industry-leading products from a reference Japanese manufacturer. The company will now proceed with a pilot plant test of its proprietary process in the September quarter of 2019, which will in turn feed into a class 3 engineering study and feasibility study.

Neometals will be considering India as the location to build a lithium hydroxide refinery, but previously announced plans for the project to be built in Kalgoorlie will remain as an option.

Neometals Ltd has signed a binding memorandum of understanding with India's third-largest power trading and diversified renewable energy company, Manikaran Power, to develop the first lithium refinery in the country. The joint initiative comes as India moves to build up a domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and promote the use of more electric vehicles.

Neometals has completed a scoping study for its proposed lithium-ion battery recycling and processing initiative, with results showing encouraging economic outcomes for an initial 10-year plant life. The company will process about 18,000 tonnes of exhausted LIBs per annum and churn out a pre-tax NPV of $308m and IRR of 72%, with a CAPEX cost of $92m and payback in less than two years.

Neometals has released an updated DFS confirming that the production of vanadium pentoxide and ferrovanadium from its Barrambie project near Sandstone, WA, is both technically feasible and economically viable. The company will now focus on a pilot-scale evaluation of hydrometallurgical processing to recover titanium, vanadium and iron products rather than just the vanadium contained within the project's ores.

The state is developing from a gas exporter to produce a range of energy commodities and technological innovations, with energy exports to potentially hit $50 billion in a decade.

Neometals is now fully focussed on progressing the Barrambie vanadium-titanium-magnetite project near Sandstone, WA, towards a final investment decision this year following the completion of the $104m Mt Marion divestment. The company is also planning to complete the Canadian lithium‐ion battery recycling pilot and feasibility study and proving up the potential of its zeolite production process.

Neometals has commissioned Stage 1 of its lithium-ion battery recycling pilot plant in Canada, with SGS Canada being awarded the contracts to construct and operate the plant at the company's fully accredited Lakefield facility. The battery shredding plant has prepared about 2 tonnes of used battery materials for the Stage 2 hydrometallurgical processing and refining phase to deliver high-purity battery materials into the market.

Neometals will bank another $104m from the final equity sell down of its founding stake in the Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie. The sale takes Neometals' total equity and dividend return from the project to an incredible $200m from an original investment of just $3m. The company's co-shareholders in the project, Mineral Resources and Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium will pay about $51.9m each to become 50/50 co-owners.

Neometals Ltd has commenced an update of its 2009 DFS for the Barrambie vanadium-titanium-magnetite project located near Sandstone in WA, citing a 4-fold increase in vanadium prices since that initial study was conducted. The update will examine development options including offshore processing of the crushed ores, onsite production of a high-grade concentrate for direct sale and potential refining opportunities to generate premium vanadium chemicals.

GR Engineering Services has been appointed to lead a bankable feasibility study for FYI Resources, while Adaman Resources will complete a mining study for Neometals' Barrambie vanadium project.

Albemarle Corporation has revised the construction schedule for its $1 billion lithium plant at Kemerton, with site works due to start next month and the US company accelerating expansion of the project.

After largely writing the book on how to develop a massive mineral project as an ASX listed junior using farm in money from its counterparties, Neometals will no doubt be feeling a quiet sense of satisfaction this week after taking receipt of its first $6.2m dividend cheque from the Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie.

Neometals has appointed two new non-executive directors with wide ranging experience to strengthen its board ahead of the proposed demerger of the Barrambie titanium-vanadium project and associated non-lithium technology assets into a new ASX-listed entity. Dr Jennifer Purdie is the CEO of Adani Australia Renewables while Leslie Guthrie was most recently Vice President Projects (Potash in Canada) for BHP Billiton.

Neometals has successfully transitioned lithium waste material into pay rock by converting spodumene waste into a little known but lucrative synthetic material known as “zeolite'. A typical operation that processes lithium bearing spodumene mineralisation into Lithium hydroxide would normally deliver almost 90% of the spodume concentrate to waste. Neometals will turn that waste into zeolite and turbo charge the economics of its hydroxide plant in the process.

Neometals will demerge its valuable Barrambie project and associated non-lithium technology assets into a new ASX listed entity, allowing the parent company to focus on its advanced lithium business. The new company will oversee the initial development of the massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium project and create a direct shipping operation of magnetic concentrates out of W.A.

West Perth-based Neometals will demerge its Barrambie vanadium and titanium project early next year, as the businesses gears up for a final investment decision on its planned Kalgoorlie lithium hydroxide refinery in mid-2019.

Lithium advocates have been cautioned to separate facts from hype as it is not yet clear if battery manufacturing in Western Australia will be practical, although refining plans should proceed immediately, according to Mckinsey & Co partner Prabhav Sharma.

Neometals Ltd has received some very encouraging metallurgical results for potentially direct shipping ore concentrates from its Barrambie titanium vanadium iron project, located near Meekatharra in W.A. The processed ores produced recoveries exceeding 90% for titanium dioxide and also showed high recoveries for pig iron and vanadium. The results provide encouragement that a simple, conventional processing pathway can be developed for the high grade ores.

Neometals Ltd has reported a major increase to its nickel mineral resources at the Mt Edwards project courtesy of four new deposits, nearly tripling metal inventories to 7.4 million tonnes grading 1.7% nickel for just over 123,000 tonnes. The company recently completed the acquisition of the Mt Edwards tenements from Apollo Phoenix Resources and with them, the assignment of further nickel rights.

Neometals has executed a two-year option agreement with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to sub-lease a 40 hectare site for its proposed lithium refinery, located in an industrial estate at West Kalgoorlie. The site is located close to critical road, rail and power infrastructure, just 70km by road from the existing Mt Marion Lithium operations, where the company will initially source the raw spodumene lithium feedstock.

Neometals has signed a two-year option agreement for a 40-hectare site in Kalgoorlie for its proposed development of a lithium hydroxide refinery.

There has been a big increase this year in the number of ASX-listed companies, primarily junior explorers in WA, forced to retract announcements.

Neometals has announced it has mined a bulk sample of high grade titanium-vanadium ore from its Barrambie project for dispatch to metallurgy research institutes in China. The material selected is potential ore feed for a future direct shipping operation and samples will undergo extensive beneficiation and pyrometallurgical test work to confirm the optimal processing pathway ahead of offtake pricing negotiations with the Chinese.

In what appears to be a serious opportunity for W.A, the smart money in the lithium space is now moving downstream into the production of lithium-ion battery chemicals such as lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide and the mining of lithium is now looking a bit like the poor cousin. Neometals has kicked off its engineering and design study for a proposed Kalgoorlie lithium hydroxide plant.

Even though Neometals' massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium-iron resource in W.A is of a globally significant scale, it has flown under the radar given that Neometals is better known for its development of the equally significant Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie. The company surprised the market last week by announcing a 280m tonne Resource at Barrambie grading 9.18% TiO2 and 0.44% V2O5.

Tests on lithium concentrates from the Mt Marion mine near Coolgardie have produced exceptionally high quality lithium hydroxide with a 99.99% purity, making a compelling case for part owner Neometals to move into downstream processing by making use of its off-take agreement with its partners. Neometals is planning to build a 10,000 tonne per annum lithium hydroxide plant for the off-take.

Emerging Western Australian nickel company St George Mining is pleased to announce it has successfully raised $4.0 million from institutional and sophisticated investors via a placement at an issue

Neometals has announced the acquisition of a strategic brownfields lithium project, located 40km from its existing Mount Marion Lithium project near Coolgardie. The company obtained 75% of the lithium rights to the Mt Edwards Lithium project for a staged consideration of $2.7M and will obtain the remaining 25% lithium rights by purchasing 19 tenements from a private company for a further $1.8M.

Shares in Altura Mining, which is on the brink of lithium production, jumped this morning after the $770 million company confirmed it was in discussions with its largest shareholder in relation to a potential control transaction.