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Element 25 granted Innovation Patent for high purity manganese process

Published: 09:22 20 Sep 2021 AEST

Element 25 Ltd - Element 25 granted Innovation Patent for high purity manganese process
E25’s objective is to become a low cost Zero Carbon ManganeseTM producer.

Element 25 Ltd (ASX:E25) has been granted a patent for a flowsheet designed to extract manganese from run-of mine concentrate from the company’s 100%-owned, world-class Butcherbird manganese operation in Western Australia.

An Innovation Patent for rapid atmospheric manganese extraction has been granted for an eight-year term.

The patent is based on a process-proven ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure leach with multiple testing rounds leaching project ores to produce a manganese sulphate solution, achieving high recoveries and excellent selectivity against undesirable impurities.

Battery-grade HPMSM for EVs

This solution is further processed to produce battery-grade High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate (HPMSM) for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EV).

Recent test work confirmed high extraction rates of up to 97% in under 60 minutes, with the bulk of the extraction taking place in the first 15 minutes of the reaction.

Importantly, this round of extraction tests utilised an alternative reagent offering advantages over that used previously in terms of availability, cost, process simplification and carbon intensity, in keeping with E25's objective of becoming a low-cost Zero Carbon ManganeseTM producer.

Manganese increasingly important

The E25 Business Development team is focusing on the next stages of a multi-stage development strategy, including a Stage 2 expansion of the concentrate business followed by a Stage 3 development to convert concentrate material into HPMSM for EV batteries to power the global transition away from fossil fuel-powered mobility.

Manganese is emerging as an increasingly important ingredient for EV batteries, with potential supply constraints for nickel and cobalt forcing battery manufacturers to look to high manganese cathodes to produce the vast amount of cathode material required by the EV industry in coming years.

Towards Zero Carbon ManganeseTM

Butcherbird is ideally placed to feed this potential demand, with advanced flowsheet development work undertaken in 2019 and 2020 confirming a simple leach process for E25 ores which, when combined with offsets, will target the world’s first Zero Carbon ManganeseTM for EV cathode manufacture.

This comes as battery electric vehicle (BEV) makers seek to increase the uptake of electric vehicles and optimise processes with one commercial driver being cost reduction.

Europe BEV sales volumes (m) and penetration (%).

Volkswagen's Power Day suggested a 50% cost reduction for batteries with cell design (-15%), production process (-10%), cathode/anode materials (-20%) and battery systems (-5%) driving the change.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)’s latest report states that global BEV penetration is expected to rise to 15.2% by 2025 and to 39.5% in 2030 – led by Europe and China.

A primary driver in the supply of cathode materials is a shift to a high manganese cathode material for volume production and this is expected to underpin strong demand growth for battery-grade manganese sulphate.

Estimates put demand by 2030 at 13 times the current supply and a deficit of 1.3 million tonnes even factoring in planned supply increases.

World-class resource

E25’s Butcherbird Manganese Project is a world-class manganese resource with current JORC resources of more than 263 million tonnes of manganese ore.

In May 2020, the company completed a pre-feasibility study (PFS) with respect to developing the deposit to produce manganese concentrate for export to generate early cashflow with a modest capital requirement.

Stage 1 of the project development plan is complete and E25 has started shipping ore to offtake partners.

The PFS also highlighted the project’s potential for growth beyond the initial Stage 1 production volumes and the company expects to expedite the expansion of the project.

In addition to concentrate exports, E25 has completed extensive research & development and laboratory testing into the production of high purity manganese products including battery-grade HPMSM and High Purity Electrolytic Manganese Metal (HPEMM).

The work has highlighted that the Butcherbird ores are highly amenable to an ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure leach process, resulting in a very efficient extraction of the manganese into solution, the key requirement for the cost-effective and sustainable production of HPMSM and HPEMM.

The company plans to integrate renewable energy into the power solution over time to target a zero-carbon footprint for the project, which is expected to also reduce energy costs.

A cleaner, lower carbon flowsheet and high penetration renewable energy will place Butcherbird at the forefront of sustainable high purity manganese production.

Element 25 to deliver first North American battery grade manganese sulphate...

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