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Wolfsberg Lithium Project, Austria The Wolfsberg Lithium Project is located in Carinthia, 270 km south of Vienna, Austria. The Project is located 20 km east of Wolfsberg, an industrial town, with excellent infrastructure, which includes rail. The main industry in the area is forestry and a pulp and paper mill is in operation in Wolfsberg. The Project is considered to be of potential strategic importance to European manufacturers for Lithium, Silica, Feldspar and Mica. In the view of the Company this has the potential to deliver substantial shareholder wealth in both the short and medium term. The Project is pegmatite hosted and has an inferred JORC resource of 18 million tonnes grading 1.6% Lithium Oxide ("Li2O") with a further initial exploration target of 8 to 12 million tonnes with a grade of 1.5% to 2% Lithium Oxide ("Li2O")*. *The potential quantity and grade of this exploration target is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral Resource on the property and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in discovery of further Mineral Resources on the property. There are two types of Pegmatite ores within the Project, with veins up to 5.5m:
Preliminary work indicates that there is significant scope to increase the resource classification and the size of the resource by drilling. It is anticipated that drilling will be undertaken targeting the down dip extension of the Pegmatite ore body and also along strike extensions to achieve the resource upgrade. Historical exploration work between 1981 and 1988 included 101 diamond drill holes for 16,727 metres and 1,607 assays. In 1985 the portal (adit) was cut and trial mining continued to 1988. In this time 1,389 metres of decline, drives and crosscuts which are 4 metres by 4 metres were developed, which access the ore body (Photo 1). Two trial stopes were also mined looking at long hole retreat and cut and fill toping methods. Rock mechanic studies and mining efficiency studies were also completed.
Photo 1: Ore Drive of 4 metre by 4 metre dimension ECM Lithium Group intends to exploit the Project with the view to applying Australian underground bulk mining techniques. Metallurgical and Processing studies on the pegmatite ore started at Carolina State University in 1982. The work continued through to 1987 and was focused on the optimisation of the flotation process. In 1988 a pilot plant test was set up at Carolina State University to produce Mica, Feldspar, Quartz and Spodumene (lithium mineral) saleable products. From this work at an estimated mining and processing rate of 150,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) 25,000 TPA Spodumene Concentrate (6% Li20), 49,500 TPA Feldspar, 24,500 TPA Quartz (Silica Sand) and 3,375 TPA Mica could be produced. Therefore 74% of all mined ore produced a saleable product and 26% of the material was waste. In 1988 Austroplan completed laboratory scale tests of producing Lithium Carbonate from the Spodumene Concentrate. This work returned recoveries of 93%. In addition to the attractive project metrics, Dr Richard God, a Vienna based lithium specialist who has an intimate knowledge of the Wolfsberg Lithium Project and has been retained as a key advisor/ consultant to the Company. Dr God will provide geological expertise to advance the Project towards production and to also direct exploration efforts. Dr God has an intimate knowledge of the Austrian Lithium Project as he worked on the Project from discovery in 1981 through to 1988 and has published several geological papers and articles on the deposit. Key Project Features
Development Stategy
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