In a major milestone for the company, Euro Manganese Inc (ASX:EMN, TSX-V:EMN, OTCQX:EUMNF) has produced 99.9% high-purity electrolytic manganese metal (HPEMM) from its demonstration plant at the flagship Chvaletice Project in the Czech Republic.
The HPEMM – which was tested by an external laboratory – will now be advanced through the final module of production into high purity manganese sulphate (HPMSM) which will also be sent to an external laboratory for testing when ready.
Euro Manganese anticipates its demonstration plant will begin acceptance testing in late April, after which the company will begin delivering HPEMM and/or HPMSM to customers.
Euro Manganese is developing Chvaletice as a waste-to-value recycling and remediation opportunity involving reprocessing old tailings from a decommissioned mine.
It is also the only sizable resource of manganese in the European Union, positioning the company to provide critical raw materials to battery supply chains and support the global decarbonisation effort.
Enabling the qualification process
“Producing HPEMM from our Demonstration Plant is a significant milestone and de-risks our process flow sheet,” Euro Manganese president and CEO Dr Matthew James said.
“I look forward to receiving confirmation that HPMSM produced is on-spec and completing the commissioning process.
“We are eager to provide customers with high-purity manganese from our demonstration plant so they can either get started on, or continue with, their qualification process of our products.”
EMN began flowsheet process commissioning at Chvaletice in November last year on a module-by-module basis.
Chvaletice Process Flow Sheet.
External laboratory analysis of the HPEMM and HPMSM produced at Chvaletice has introduced a slight delay to the commissioning process, as turnaround times are currently 3-4 weeks.
The company will now move to the final Dissolution and Crystallisation module, with an update to be released as soon as on-spec HPMSM is produced from the demonstration plant.
In the meantime, EMN expects representatives from the company that manufactured the demonstration plant to arrive at Chvaletice in late April, at which time the plant will undergo acceptance testing.
This will involve running the plant on a module-by-module basis to confirm each module meets the design specification of product quality, throughput, and reagent consumption.
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