The pilot plant will run continuously for 90 days to test for titanium dioxide (TiO2), vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) and magnetite (Fe2O3) production using the ORF process for TiO2 extraction. Temas, which acquired 50% of ORF Technologies in April, stated that the process is an effective and economically viable method to recover titanium dioxide and other metal oxides.
All reagents used at the pilot plant will be recycled and reused, which Temas said is consistent with the environmental benefits of the ORF process. Any material produced will be used for the testing of potential customers.
Temas noted that PRO has a lot of experience in processing titanium. It has a laboratory and pilot facilities for hydrometallurgical processing, as well as a pilot scale continuous atmospheric leaching system. Its facilities also include bench-scale titanium and pilot-scale stainless steel autoclaves for high-pressure leaching that have a capacity of up to 50 gallons (189.3L). In addition, it has a solvent extraction system that consists of mixer settlers, pulse column and fixed bed and continuous ion exchange systems, along with lab and pilot scale liquid/solid separation equipped with thickeners and filters, and electrowinning cells for product recovery.
In March, PRO was appointed by United Lithium to develop a leaching and purification protocol for the hard rock lithium deposits at the Bergby lithium project in Sweden. The same month, it completed a pilot plant programme for Global Atomic that demonstrated the viability of a uranium recovery process.
ORF Technologies has several patents for treating ilmenite ore and extracting metal oxides at high purity and recovery rates. The ORF process has been used for other titanium-containing ores, both in Canada and abroad. A report published by the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth in the US in 2017 found that the technology demonstrated over 99.8% pure titanium dioxide and pure iron oxides at 98.5% (unoptimised) purity.
Michael Dehn, president and CEO of Temas, said: "PRO's principals have conducted metallurgical test work and developed extraction processes for some of the largest names in the Canadian and international metals and mining industry. They are internationally recognised experts in process and extraction technology development including green extraction technology. They are experts in hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processing."
TAlong with its La Blache project in Quebec, Temas expects to be active soon with its joint venture partner at the Piskanje boron project in Serbia.
