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Noram Achieves Initial Success With Chloride-Based Leaching for Lithium Clay Extraction
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 14, 2021 / Noram Ventures Inc. ("Noram" or the "Company...
About this update from Noram Lithium Corp
[{"type":"text","content":"Noram Achieves Initial Success With Chloride-Based Leaching for Lithium Clay ExtractionVANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 14, 2021 / Noram Ventures Inc. (\"Noram\" or the \"Company\") (TSXV:NRM)(FSE:N7R)(OTCQB:NRVTF) is pleased to announce that in anticipation of Preliminary Economic Assessment studies for the Zeus lithium claystone deposit in Clayton Valley, Nevada, Noram is conducting a series of chemical engineering tests to extract and concentrate lithium. In July and August 2020, Noram conducted successful membrane + electrolysis where 97% pure lithium carbonate was achieved after leaching in sulfate-based solutions. Since then, Noram has initiated chloride-based leaching experiments. These experiments are guided by evidence regarding the cation exchange capacity of some clay minerals, where lithium is liberated relatively easily in chloride solutions if HCl is used to overcome kinetic effects. Noram is contracting Activation Laboratories, Inc., of Ancaster, Ontario for this series of tests. The Actlabs Group of Companies is well-known globally as a research-oriented companies with experienced scientists to help solve analytical challenges.Noram and Actlabs have already achieved initial success. Initial results using low concentrations of HCl and simple chloride compounds (including NaCl), moderate temperatures, and leaching times of only one hour, have yielded up to 425 ppm lithium in solution. President and CEO C. Tucker Barrie notes that: \"These initial tests are producing significant amounts of lithium in solution from our claystone material, with concentrations 2.5 times greater than the current brine pumped from aquifers for Albemarle's Silver Peak operations next door /1/. We are very encouraged by these results. We plan a series of leaching tests with variable reagent concentrations, temperatures and duration of leaching to optimize the lithium into solution in Q1 2021, ahead of our PEA to provide guidance for more comprehensive chemical engineering studies.There are two significant advantages to using chloride chemistry in comparison to sulfate-based chemistry. 1) During processing, sulfate minerals may precipitate governed by their unusual, temperature-dependent solubilities, and this can hinder lithium extraction, whereas chloride compounds are easier to manage. 2) The cost of using HCl in comparison to using ...