Avalon awards early-works contract for lithium pilot plant
Avalon Advanced Materials has awarded an early-works contract for its proposed northwestern Ontario lithium mine project to a construction consortium that includes several First Nations communities on whose traditional territory the project is sited.
Avalon awarded the contract for roadwork and site preparation work for the installation and commissioning of a dense media separation (DMS) plant for the project to SOW Construction Limited Partnership.
SOW is a joint venture between Kenora’s Moncrief Construction Limited and Wabaseemoong Independent Nations of Swan Lake, One Man Lake and Whitedog.
The work is now underway and is expected to be completed later this summer.
Aggregate for the road work will be produced at the Avalon Quarry site as part of an initiative to prepare the road for heavy equipment transport and to prepare the site for the DMS plant installation. The quarry is located approximately 2 kilometres north of the Sand Lake Road and approximately 7 kilometres south of the project site.
A 5,000-tonne bulk sample collected from the project site in 2021 will be crushed and returned to the quarry site as initial feed for the DMS Plant to begin producing petalite concentrate product samples for the many international glass-ceramic manufacturers that have expressed interest.
The plant will also be used to produce potential by-products including rubidium bearing K-feldspars which are also used in certain ceramic applications. Installation of the demonstration DMS plant is expected to begin this fall with the plant expected to be operational by spring 2023.
Avalon says its Separation Rapids Lithium Project has the potential to produce high purity lithium compounds for two distinct markets: an industrial mineral product for glass-ceramics and lithium chemicals for energy storage. The site is located about 70 kilometres north of Kenora.
Meanwhile, Avalon continues to push toward acquiring an industrial site in Thunder Bay for its planned lithium battery materials refinery.
Avalon has identified an appropriate site, and made an offer to acquire the property. The transaction is expected to be completed in September, once debt financing has been arranged.