Lindian Resources Limited has issued the results from the initial orientation metallurgical test work undertaken at the Kangankunde Rare Earths project in Malawi.
According to Lidian, results confirm that water-only, low-cost gravity and magnetic beneficiation techniques are suitable for Kangankunde mineralisation.
Lindian said the early-stage initial results are encouraging and will be used to guide and support the ensuing metallurgical optimisation program.
According to the company, a scoping metallurgical testing program was conducted using critical criteria from the historical metallurgical work as a starting basis to validate the historical work and identify areas where further improvements may be achieved.
Additionally, Lindian conducted shaking table testing to determine the viability of beneficiating rare earth mineralisation by gravity separation techniques and provide a preliminary indication of achievable grade and recovery.
It added that an initial evaluation of the Multi-Gravity Separator (MGS) demonstrates that the recovery of fine-grained rare earth mineralisation is enhanced over that achieved using a shaking table, with MGS achieving a 69.7 per cent light rare earth oxide (LREO) recovery to a concentrate grading 51.7 per cent LREO in one pass on a -53 µm fines sample.
Further optimisation testing is expected to include continuous grinding, followed by spiralling and shaking table testing supplemented with evaluating other enhanced gravity technologies such as MGS and Falcon concentrators.
According to Lindian CEO Alistair Stephens, the results are pleasing and benchmark the company very well when compared to some of the world’s most notable rare earths projects.
“The scoping work has validated a general process scheme for Kangankunde, with several significant avenues for improvement identified. These results are being used to guide the optimisation metallurgical testing program for the definition of the process flowsheet and process metrics, which is considered simple in comparison to the overwhelming majority of other rare earth elements projects,” Stephens added.
