Quebec Lithium Mine Property (La-Corne)

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This the Quebec Lithium Mine Property which is operated under Quebec Lithium Inc. and 100% owned by RB Energy Inc. The Property consists of 12 contiguous claims covering 404.69 hectares: CDC 2145325 thru CDC 2145336 and CDC 2154987 thru CDC 2154987 thru CDC 2154993. Reserves as of 2011 were: 17.1 Mt @ 0.94% Li2O (lithium).

The original discovery of spodumene-bearing pegmatite on the Property was made in 1942 when three main spodumene dykes were intersected, along with several thinner ones. The owner at that time was Sullivan Mining Group, and the property went through several owners before being acquired by Quebec Lithium Corp. in 1954, and put into production in 1955. This was after sinking a three-compartment shaft and establishing three working levels at 150, 275 and 400 ft. In October 1965 operations were suspended because of unfavourable market and price conditions, and lack of sales. Mining restarted in 2013 in a new open pit mine.

The front end mineral processing section consists of a conventional rod mill / ball mill circuit to minimize fines generation, followed by scrubbing and desliming then a flotation circuit with rougher and scavenger cells and two stages of concentrate cleaning to produce a spodumene concentrate. Dense media separation as a means of upgrading the ore prior to flotation was not included in the present flowsheet due to high lithium losses. The spodumene concentrate produced in the mineral processing section is treated in the hydrometallurgical section of the plant to produce a battery grade lithium carbonate product. The hydrometallurgical section consists of concentrate calcining in a rotary kiln, sulphation with acid, water leaching, two stages of pregnant leach solution purification, further solution cleaning by ion exchange and lithium carbonate precipitation. Sodium sulphate, which is generated in the lithium carbonate precipitation step, is removed from the circuit by distillation and crystallization as a by-product.



Reference:

www.rb-e.com/s/operations.asp