LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Atlantic Lithium has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Tarkwa, Western Region of Ghana, it announced on Tuesday.
The AIM-traded firm said the collaboration aimed to conduct a definitive feasibility study to evaluate the potential for producing feldspar feedstock as a by-product at the Ewoyaa Lithium Project.

It said the alliance would closely inspect the market conditions, technical feasibility, and the commercial and financial viability of producing not just feldspar, but also quartz silica and muscovite, which are by-products of the anticipated lithium plant.

The emphasis of the study, however, would be on feldspar, presenting Atlantic Lithium with an opportunity to cater to Ghana's ceramics sector.

Atlantic said UMaT, known for its academic excellence in Ghana and Africa, specialises in producing professionals in the domains of mining, petroleum, technology, and related sectors.

The critical areas that the feldspar study being led by UMaT was aiming to cover included an examination of the demand for both weathered and fresh feldspar in Ghana and its neighbouring countries.

It said it also included a technical feasibility of processing feldspar within the Ghanaian territory, and the crafting of a detailed financial model showcasing potential expenditure and revenue.

The study would also include a risk assessment, and the formulation of risk alleviation strategies.

Atlantic Lithium said the study's outcomes were expected to pave the way for recommendations regarding the feasibility of feldspar production from the Ewoyaa plant, alongside a tentative implementation timeline.

In conjunction with the effort, Atlantic Lithium said it had initiated sodium analysis on archived drilling samples from the project site, concentrating primarily on the initial four to five years of the expected mining schedule at the Ewoyaa Main, Ewoyaa South-2, and Ewoyaa North-East deposits.

It said the sodium analysis would enhance its current multi-element analyte suite.

Additionally, the x-ray diffraction analysis of chosen whole rock pegmatite samples aimed to lay out a maiden feldspar mineral resource estimate.

"We believe that the Ewoyaa Lithium Project represents a major potential source of feldspar, identified as a by-product of spodumene concentrate production at the proposed dense media separation plant, which is widely used in ceramics and associated industries," said chief executive officer Keith Muller.

"The commercialisation of feldspar at Ewoyaa offers the potential to generate significant value to Ghana, in addition to the project's lithium production.

"In collaboration with leading Ghanaian mining university UMaT, we are undertaking a study, based on the analysis of market, technical, financial and risk considerations, to determine the viability of producing and processing feldspar."

Muller said feldspar credits were not currently included in the economic outputs outlined in the definitive feasibility study for the project, as announced at the end of June.

"We hope to help invigorate Ghana's ceramics market through the long-term supply of feldspar from Ewoyaa, stimulating the creation of new jobs and the development of associated businesses in the industry in the process.

"This way, Atlantic Lithium hopes to deliver further synergetic benefits to local stakeholders from the Ewoyaa Lithium Project.

"In line with the Feldspar Study, we have commenced sodium analysis of archive drilling pulps targeted to deliver a maiden feldspar mineral resource estimate, which could potentially further enhance the project's economics."

At 1211 BST, shares in Atlantic Lithium were down 0.62% at 20p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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