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Scandium International Initiates Pilot-scale Program for Scandium Master Alloy Production and Files for Us Patent Protection on Process
Reno, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - March 5, 2018) - Scandium International Mining Corp . ( TSX:...
About this update from Scandium International Mining Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"Scandium International Initiates Pilot-scale Program for Scandium Master Alloy Production and Files for Us Patent Protection on ProcessReno, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - March 5, 2018) - Scandium International Mining Corp. (TSX: SCY) (\"Scandium International\" or the \"Company\") is pleased to announce that it has initiated a pilot scale program at the Alcereco Inc. metallurgical research facilities in Kingston, Ontario, to confirm and refine previous work on the manufacture of aluminum-scandium 2% master alloy (MA). The pilot scale program is intended to confirm the previous bench-scale test work, and to provide necessary process understanding for commercial scale upgrade of Nyngan scandium oxide product to master alloy product. The Company also announces that it has filed for patent protection on certain process refinements for master alloy manufacture that it believes are novel methods, and also on certain product variants that it believes represent novel forms of introducing scandium more directly into aluminum alloys. The pilot program is expected to begin in March 2018 and complete in Q2 2018.HIGHLIGHTS:SCY successfully made Al-Sc 2% master alloy at bench scale in Australia in 2017,Process recoveries reached 90% on the bench scale process test work,Pilot scale master alloy manufacturing process test work initiated now, Novel product variants have been invented, to introduce scandium directly into aluminum, bypassing the MA product step, with higher process recoveries, andUS patent applications have been filed to protect novel processes and inventions.DISCUSSION:The Company initiated work to understand master alloy manufacture from scandium oxide in early 2017, at Nagrom Brisbane Labs, in QLD, Australia. Dr. Nigel Rickets (VP Development for SCY) conducted laboratory test work at Nagrom to confirm that metallurgical grade (2%) Al-Sc master alloy could be manufactured, that process steps and reagents were understood, and that commercially acceptable scandium recoveries to MA product were possible. These goals were achieved by Q4 2017. No work was done at this stage on recovery/recycle of scandium process losses to the waste product (dross) formed in the process, although we have identified several potential paths to readily achieve this recovery. Separately from the conventional MA process investigations, additional work at Na...