Lithium plays a large role and is an important growth driver in its use in the batteries of electric vehicles, of laptops and cell phones, as well as in the glass and ceramics industry.

The Mt Cattlin mine operation faces the challenge, typical of lithium mines, of dealing with basalt contamination: due to its high density – similar to that of spodumene – this high-iron, barren material is also concentrated by the DMS, contaminating the final product.

Galaxy Resources has been stockpiling this material since 2016, while searching for an effective solution to treat it prior to processing in order to achieve a viable recovery level. Since the first day of operation of the TOMRA PRO Secondary LASER sorter, it has met and exceeded expectations. The  target is to have less than 4% basalt in the product when it comes out of the TOMRA sorter and it has been consistently below this mark.