May 8 2013
Canada Lithium Corp. ("Canada Lithium" or the "Company") today announced that, following an on-site field evaluation yesterday, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has granted approval for the Company to operate its process plant kiln.
Canada Lithium will now commence the commissioning process for various hydrometallurgical circuits within the plant that, due to their integration into the kiln circuit, could not be pre-commissioned. These include the kiln input conveyor, kiln filters and baghouse installations, kiln bed, kiln discharge conveyor, lithium sulphate circuit, CO2 supply system, lime addition circuit and reverse osmosis water systems, plus various process control systems. The heating of the kiln to operational temperatures of about 1,000°C will require several days.
In addition, the circuits that were operated intermittently with limited lithium sulphate feedstock during the CSA inspection process, such as the sodium carbonate circuits and the various stages of precipitation, leaching, filtration and packaging will be sequentially integrated into the newly commissioned circuits.
With the CSA kiln approval in place, the Company currently anticipates that first shipments of lithium carbonate should now occur in June. Throughout the CSA inspection process, the Company maintained a close dialogue with off-take partners, Tewoo ERDC and Marubeni Corp.
Tailings Management Facility (TMF)
With the onset of spring weather conditions, the Ministère du Développement Durable, de l'Environnement de la Faune et des Parcs (MDDEFP) met with Golder Associates, (the Company's TMF geotechnical consultant) and the Company for an on-site inspection yesterday. It is anticipated that the remediation work scope will now be finalized and remediation work will subsequently commence.