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Neo Lithium proves concept at pilot plant; eyes production of battery grade lithium in early 4Q

Last updated: 14:16 16 Sep 2019 EDT, First published: 08:40 16 Sep 2019 EDT

Neo Lithium Corp -
The group said it was now focused on producing battery-grade lithium carbonate during the Q4 2019

Neo Lithium Corp (CVE:NLC) (OTCMKTS:NTTHF), the Argentinean-focused lithium explorer, achieved a high purity of 99.1% lithium carbonate in the first batch of production from its pilot plant in Argentina.

The firm is advancing the 3Q project in Catamarca Province and the plant used concentrated brine originally sourced from the high-grade northern section of the deposit.

READ: Neo Lithium aims to produce battery-grade lithium by September from pilot plant

"Producing lithium carbonate with this purity level in our first batch is due to the hard work of our technical team and the results of our proven upstream pilot pond system we have implemented," Waldo Perez, the president and CEO of Neo Lithium told investors.

"This is not a bench scale study; this is real life field conditions for evaporation at the project site and 1:500 scale pilot plant testing in Fiambalá obtaining high purity lithium carbonate in our first attempt.

"We have now proven our concept, and now we have our focus on the production of battery grade lithium carbonate production during the Q4 2019."

Transported by truck

The concentrated brine was transported by truck to the pilot plant in Fiambalá, which lies 160 km from the 3Q Project salar.

The plant, which was built by the Instituto de Investigaciones Tecnologicas from Universidad de Concepcion, Chile, has been operational since May this year and has a designed capacity of 40 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year.

The firm said it will continue to fine-tune the process, reagents and operations to obtain battery-grade in early fourth quarter of this year.

Shares nudged up 1.79% to stand at C$0.57 in Toronto.

Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com

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