Euro Manganese TSXV:EMN [ASX:EMN; OTCQX:EUMNF; Frankfurt:E06] said yesterday that it has produced high-purity electrolytic manganese metal from its demonstration plant at its Chvaletice Project in the Czech Republic.
An external laboratory has confirmed the first HPEMM sent for testing has met the demonstration plant target specifications and was at 99.9% Mn metal purity. High-purity manganese sulphate is now under production in the final module and will be sent for external laboratory testing in due course.
The demonstration plant is anticipated to commence acceptance testing in late April. Upon successful completion of acceptance testing, Euro Manganese says it will commence deliveries of Plant HPEMM and/or HPMSM to customers. Customer deliveries of the demonstration plant products is not expected to be required for completion of offtake contracts.
Dr. Matthew James, President & CEO of Euro Manganese, explained further: “Producing high-purity electrolytic manganese metal, HPEMM, from our demonstration plant is a significant milestone and de-risks our process flow sheet. I look forward to receiving confirmation that HPMSM produced is on-spec and completing the commissioning process. We are eager to provide customers with high-purity manganese from our demonstration plant so they can either get started on, or continue with, their qualification process of our products.”
Detail on plant commissioning
Commissioning of the process flowsheet commenced in November 2022 on a module-by-module basis.
The Ore-to-Slurry and Magnetic Separation modules were commissioned prior to the end of 2022 and successfully produced a manganese concentrate from the Chvaletice manganese carbonate tailings.
Commissioning of the leaching and purification module commenced in January 2023 and successfully produced a purified solution.
This solution, and both products from the subsequent steps (HPEMM and HPMSM), are required to be sent to an external laboratory that has the specialised measurement equipment required for analysis of the low-level of impurities targeted in the demonstration plant process. External laboratory turnaround times are currently 3-4 weeks, which has caused a slight delay in the commissioning schedule.
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External laboratory results from the leaching and purification module were received in February 2023, confirming the purified solution met the required specification.
The Electrowinning module successfully produced selenium-free HPEMM flakes in March 2023. This metal was sent to an external laboratory for testing, which has confirmed this metal was produced at 99.9% Mn purity and at the design specification of the demonstration plant.
The final dissolution and crystallisation module has now commenced commissioning and HPMSM will be sent to the external laboratory for testing in due course. The Company will provide an update once on-spec HPMSM is produced.
Representatives from the company which manufactured the Demonstration Plant are expected to arrive on site in late April and the plant will undergo acceptance testing. This will involve running the Plant on a module-by-module basis to confirm each module meets the design specification of product quality, throughput, and reagent consumption.
Advantages of processing via metal route
Euro Manganese’s Chvaletice project flowsheet is designed to produce sulphate (HPMSM) via metal (HPEMM), which has several commercial advantages:
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- Guarantees stability of HPMSM specification
- Provides optionality (see below):
- Metal can be used as feedstock for new technologies like Nano One’s metal to cathode M2CAM One-Pot Process;
- Metal can be further processed into other derivatives of high-purity manganese, which are currently under discussion with various potential customers;
- Metal can be further processed at alternate locations, close to customer plants, reducing transports costs and potentially avoiding the costs associated with crystallisation, drying and packaging; and
- Metal can be sold to the specialty alloy industry.
About the demonstration plant
The demonstration plant enables Euro Manganese to produce bulk samples for prospective customers’ testing and qualification. The plant’s design capacity is 32kg per day of HPEMM or 100kg per day of HPMSM. The plant will enable process optimisation and testing for final product development and serve as a testing and training facility. It is expected to operate for up to three years and will also be available for testing of potential additional feedstock for the commercial plant.
