Rock Tech and Avalon Sign Letter of Intent to collaborate on the development of a joint Lithium Sulphate production facility in Thunder Bay

2020-11-16 / @thenewswire

(TheNewswire)

Vancouver, BC, Canada - TheNewswire - November 16, 2020 - Rock Tech Lithium Inc. (the "Company" or “Rock Tech”) (TSXV:RCK) (Frankfurt:RJIB) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Letter of Intent (“LOI”) with Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. (“Avalon”) (TSX: AVL) to assess the technical and economic feasibility of a jointly operated lithium sulphate processing facility in Thunder Bay, Ontario. This facility would be designed to accept lithium mineral concentrates from both Rock Tech’s and Avalon’s 100% owned hard rock lithium deposits and convert them into Lithium Sulphate, a precursor chemical for Lithium Hydroxide.

Under the LOI the parties agreed to assess the following areas:

- Design a process flowsheet that allows the treatment of petalite and spodumene concentrates. The product of the flowsheet will be Lithium Sulphate.

- Conduct a piloting campaign on the process flowsheet to prove scalability of the process to industrial scale and Feasibility level.

- Identify alternative applications for the high purity aluminum silicate process by-product in other industries, such as the cement or ceramics industry.

“In our recently published PEA for a fully integrated lithium hydroxide producer we have shown that we can greatly improve economics by scaling up the size of the lithium converter to its technical limits. Last week we announced a capital raise to fund a pre-feasibility study with exactly that aim – building a converter with an annual output of 24,000 tonnes. As Georgia Lake may not provide sufficient feedstock for a converter with such a large nameplate capacity, we are assessing third party concentrate sources. Avalon’s Separation Rapids Lithium Project may qualify as one of them providing we can successfully develop a flowsheet that allows us to treat the petalite ore together with our spodumene ore from Georgia Lake and other sources. We are very happy to join forces with Avalon to assess this potential value-add opportunity,” said Simon Bodensteiner, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer.

The co-operation will only focus on the front-end of the lithium conversion process up to the precursor chemical Lithium Sulphate since both companies pursue different conversion technology concepts from Sulphate to Hydroxide. As part of the Lithium Sulphate production aluminum silicates will be generated as a by-product. In the view of Rock Tech and Avalon, this high purity product may be suitable for applications in the cement or ceramics industry. Both companies aim to develop an offtake strategy for those alumino-silicates.

“The LOI with Avalon is in line with our strategy to build and operate a converter facility in Canada and Europe. As pointed out in our shareholder letter last week, we see benefits in producing Lithium Sulphate in Canada and converting it to Lithium Hydroxide in Europe. Therefore, the cooperation with Avalon complements this strategy,” said Dirk Harbecke, the Company’s Chairman.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Simon Bodensteiner"
Simon Bodensteiner
Director, Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Brad Barnett
Chief Financial Officer
Rock Tech Lithium Inc.
777 Hornby Street, Suite 600
Vancouver, B.C., V6Z 1S4
Telephone: (778) 358-5200
Facsimile: (604) 670-0033
Email: bbarnett@rocktechlithium.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, "forward‐looking statements". Forward‐looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward‐looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward‐looking statements.