(April 1, 2019) – Iconic Minerals Ltd. (“Company” or “Iconic”) (TSX‑V: ICM) (OTC: BVTEF) (FSE: YQGB) is pleased to announce that St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (SX) has released further information on their metallurgical work on Bonnie Claire lithium bearing sediments dated March 31, 2019. SX states “St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE: SX)) is pleased to inform its shareholders that it can confirm that it has achieved complete and total recovery in leach of lithium from the bulk material provided by its partner Iconic Minerals.” SG reports leaching 100% of the lithium while not affecting 88% of the remaining solids. The process uses Nitric and Citric acid at room temperature which reduces cost over other leaching methods. The sample tested which contained 963 ppm Li before processing contained 8,025 ppm lithium after processing, a gain of 833 percent. SX also announced that because the leach process removes most of the salts from the sediment the remaining material may be suitable for a nitrate based fertilizer by-product.
SX Goes into more details of the ongoing work on Bonnie Claire sediment which are quoted below:
“Developmental testing has results in 100% of the lithium leached to be repeatedly recuperated using the patent pending leaching technology developed by St-Georges.
Below are the steps tested in the course of the Phase 1 development of the process.
Step 1: Screening
The lithium material is being screened to remove pebbles and other coarse material like calcium.
(Independent testing and review of this stage was performed during the course of the months of March and April 2018 by SGS Lakefield laboratory in Ontario)
Step 2: De- Agglomeration
The agglomerated material is being feed into a roll grinder to break down the feed into the original fine particles before drying.
This was also done and reviewed by SGS Laboratories. After these 2 initial steps review, SGS performed an XRD and chemical analysis for each of the elements and crystalline forms.
Step 3: Concentration
Two approaches where developed and tested. Air Classification and Flotation Concentration. These co-exist as linear task A and B of the Concentration step at this stage. St-Georges is currently working on eliminating one of the sub-task with the hopes of drastically reducing costs and time of processing.
Task 3a: Air Classification
In this step the material is separated by density and particle size. In the particular case of the Bonnie Claire material, the lithium is contained in the superfine particles. These particles are too fine to be screened. Independent review and testing of Task 3a was performed in the scope of the month of November 2018 by the laboratories of Netzsch Premier Technologies LLC of Exton, Pennsylvania. The resulting material was reduced by 55% with a cut-off at 5 microns. The resulting material was sent by Netzsch for chemically analysis to the laboratories of the Centre de Technologie Minérales et de Plasturgie Inc.(CTMP) at Thedford-Mines in Québec. The labs results confirmed that 100% of the lithium remained in the resulting concentrate when properly de agglomerated.
Task 3b: Floatation Concentration
The CTMP labs performed at the demand of St-Georges a traditional froth floatation with deionized water. These tests were unsuccessful forcing the company metallurgists to adopt a different approach. St-Georges patent pending technology using a silicate salt saturated medium will be independently reviewed and tested with bulk material within the first part of the month of April by CTMP.
Step 4: Selective Leaching
Using St-Georges patent pending acid mix solution of Nitric and Citric acids, the CTMP reviewed and independently tested 2 batches of material from the Bonnie Claire lithium deposit.
Leach test 1:
Material from this initial test was passed though task 1 and task 2 but skipped Classification and Concentration. The results are:
100% of the lithium was leached at atmosphere pressure and low temperature. The total leach time was 1 hour resulting in 12% of the initial total mass. The Company set-up to improve on that result.
Leach test 2:
Material from this leach test was passed through task, 1, 2 and 3a. 100% of the lithium was leached at atmosphere pressure and low temperature. The total leach time was 1 hour resulting in 12% of the initial total mass.
Optimization of these tasks should yield results in industrial settings that would reduce the total mass to a target percentage below 5%.”
Iconic Minerals is encouraged by these metallurgical results and looks forward to St-Georges future announcements.
The Bonnie Claire Lithium Property Characteristics:
The Property is located within Sarcobatus Valley that is approximately 30 km (19 miles) long and 20 km (12 miles) wide. Quartz-rich volcanic tuffs, that contain anomalous amounts of lithium, occur within and adjacent to the valley. Geochemical analysis of the local salt flats has yielded lithium values up to 340 ppm. The gravity low within the valley is 20 km (12 miles) long, and the current estimates of depth to basement rocks range from 600 to 1,200 meters (2,000 to 4,000 feet). Four drill holes have identified an open ended, 43-101 compliant resource of 28.58 billion kilograms of lithium carbonate equivalent. The drilling that defined the current resource only covered an area of 3.0 km2 (1.2mi2), while previously run MT geophysics show a potentially mineralized area of 27.3 km2 (10.5mi2). Drilling to date has shown strong correlation between the MT results and the lithium mineralization. The thickness of the lithium mineralization is unknown, but drilling indicates it is greater than 600 meters (2,000 feet). The current claim block covers an area of 57.5 km2 (22.2mi2). Further drilling has been permitted and metallurgy to determine the most efficient recovery method is currently in progress.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
SIGNED: “Richard Kern”
Richard Kern, President and CEO
Contact: Keturah Nathe, VP Corporate Development (604) 336-8614
For further information on ICM, please visit our website at www.iconicmineralsltd.com. The Company’s public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com
Forward Statement: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Iconic expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.
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