American Lithium extracts 97.4% lithium at Tonopah, Nevada

American Lithium Corp. [LI-TSXV; LIACF-OTCQB; 5LA-FSE] reported the highest lithium extraction results to date, achieving 97.4% extraction utilizing warm sulphuric acid leach on its advanced 100%-owned Tonopah lithium claims (TLC) claystone mineralization 12 km northwest of Tonopah in the Esmeralda lithium district of Nevada.

The latest TLC test work run by TECMMINE in Lima, Peru has achieved 97.4% lithium extraction using warm sulfuric acid leach, the highest results achieved to date from any recovery process. On-going test work for the sulfuric acid process route will continue to be optimized by varying leach time, acid concentration, temperature, solid-liquid ratios and grind/particle size.

Metallurgical work on the TLC claystone mineralization continues to demonstrate amenability to three process options to extract lithium:

97. i) leaching with sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) at 90ËšC (97.4% extraction);
98. ii) salt roasting followed by water leaching (initial 82% extraction); and

iii) leaching with hydrochloric acid (HCl) at 90ËšC (initial 95.1% extraction).

Continued metallurgical work will aim to take each processing option through to the lithium carbonate and/or lithium hydroxide precipitation stage and to focus on optimizing all 3 processing options and related flow-sheet designs. Thereafter, the company will select the best option to enable a robust Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) with economic benefits maximized and environmental impacts minimized.

Dr. Laurence Stefan, COO of American Lithium, stated, “We are pleased to have achieved the highest lithium extraction to date from TLC using simple sulfuric acid processing with almost the entire amount of lithium available extracted into sulfate solution. We continue to focus on optimizing the best process routes from both economic and environmental perspectives and, thereafter, to advance TLC through PEA towards future development.”

Optimization test work will continue into Fall 2021 using all three potential process options: hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid as well as salt roasting/water leaching. American Lithium is committed to producing a world class process to supply cost competitive lithium products in an environmentally sound manner.

The company also granted, subject to regulatory acceptance, 500,000 incentive stock options to an advisor / consultant of the company. The options have a term of five years and are exercisable at a price of $1.81 per common share.

American Lithium shares gained $0.5 to $1.86 in early trading on a volume of 532,400 shares traded.