Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM) has announced that its sulphate refinery pilot plant at SGS Canada, which aims to produce key battery metal products, nickel and cobalt sulphate, has produced its first on-spec nickel sulphate.
As part of the commercial flowsheet to be utilised at the TECH Project, QPM will refine the nickel and cobalt extracted by the DNi Process into battery grade sulphate. This part of the flowsheet is largely conventional, with some modifications to suit the TECH Project and to optimise for planned ore grade.
Since May 2023, QPM has been undertaking pilot scale testwork at the facilities of SGS Canada.
The subprocesses being tested were:
- Aluminium precipitation
- Impurity solvent extraction (ISX)
- Cobalt solvent extraction (CSX) and nickel solvent extraction (NSX)
- Transformation solvent extraction and purification solvent extraction
- Nickel sulphate crystallisation
The piloting has been successful in producing nickel sulphate which meets the specifications required under the offtake agreements with each of QPM’s partners, General Motors, LG Energy Solutions and POSCO. Thus far, over 10kg of on-spec nickel sulphate has been produced.
The piloting has also been successful in validating this section of the commercial flowsheet, which will be essential for securing the support of potential financiers of the TECH Project.
QPM is also planning to produce on-spec cobalt sulphate in the next phase of pilot testwork.
QPM Managing Director and CEO, Dr Stephen Grocott, said, “Nickel sulphate is the main product being produced at the TECH Project. Production of on-spec material through our pilot testwork is a significant achievement and will greatly assist in our financing endeavours.”
Featured image: Inside the pilot sulphate refinery plant. Image credit: Queensland Pacific Metals.
