Gordana Slepcev, COO, LOMIKO METALS INC
Can you give an overview of Lomiko Metals’ activities over the past year?
In 2022, we completed a 13,000 m, 79-hole, infill drill program at La Loutre to upgrade the inferred resources to the indicated category. There has been a 184% increase in tonnage in the indicated resources and we are now reporting an estimate of 64.7 million t averaging 4.59% carbon pt for 3.0 million t of graphite in the indicated category. As a result of the infill drill program, there is also the addition of 17.5 million t of inferred resources averaging 3.51% carbon pt for 0.65 million t of contained graphite. The MRE assumes a US$1,098.07/t graphite price and a cut-off grade of 1.50%Cg (graphitic carbon).
In February 2023, Lomiko completed PFS-level metallurgical testing and completed a flowsheet optimization.
Lomiko is advancing in technology, and our goal is to eventually become a carbon-negative mining operation. We still have work to do on our mine plan where we have to finish the designs for processing plants and infrastructure. We also still have to complete geotechnical field work for the infrastructure studies, additional baseline studies, which we hope to finish by the end of 2023, depending on our ability to raise the necessary funds (US$5-$7 million). Lomiko also has six other graphite properties in the Grenville sedimentary belt where we identified 55 targets in 2022. In May 2023, we started with a field program where we completed prospecting, mapping, tracing, and collecting samples to field prove these targets.
What milestones will Lomiko try to achieve at the Bourier lithium project in the coming months?
We are currently doing geochemical studies at the Bourier project to identify the LCT pegmatites containing spodumene which we will target during the field program. At this point, Lomiko is looking to earn in up to 49% in the project. Hopefully, with the 2023 summer field program, we will identify some drill targets. Bourier is located in the Nemiscau greenstone belt, just north of the Nemaska Lithium Whiabuchi deposit and Critical Elements Lemare property which is currently achieving great results.
John Passalacqua, CEO, FIRST PHOSPHATE
Can you introduce First Phosphate?
First Phosphate is the only company in the world fully dedicated to extracting and purifying high-purity phosphate to create cathode-active material for the LFP battery industry. We plan to take a vertically integrated approach from the mine source to the development of LFP cathode active material with some of the world's largest partners. To date, the company holds over 1,500 sq. km of royalty-free district-scale land claims in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean Region of Québec, which is actively developing. We have some of the largest potential deposits close to the deep-sea port of Saguenay.
Our properties consist of rare anorthosite igneous phosphate rock that generally yields high-purity phosphate material devoid of high concentrations of harmful elements. Anorthosite igneous phosphate rock represents 1% of the world's phosphate reserves, and it is by far the purest. 90% of this rock type can be made into purified phosphoric acid using our partner Prayon Technologies’ process. Generally, 95% of the world's phosphate is a sedimentary rock, and only about 10% of that can be purified into phosphoric acid.
What are the key milestones First Phosphate is looking forward to achieving in 2023 and 2024?
A huge milestone in 2023 was to commission our phosphate concentration pilot plant. We are also working on our PEA at Lac à l’Orignal, which we expect to complete by the end of 2023 if not earlier, to move into the feasibility study stage by 2024. At Bégin-Lamarche, we recently completed 4000 m of drilling and will conduct further drilling next year to eventually publish a 43-101 report on the property.
We have secondary recoveries of ilmenite and magnetite at both properties. We are trying to upgrade our ilmenite to a synthetic rutile, which has a large value, and also an iron sulfate, as the production process for LFP batteries requires PPA, iron sulfate, and lithium. We are also looking to process the magnetite into an iron powder as some LFP processes use iron sulfate as their iron source, and others use iron powder.