Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:18 PM on Thursday, April 15th, 2021
If you think about balloons / blimps when thinking about Helium uses, we wouldn’t blame you … but you’d also be missing out on a much much bigger picture.
Looking beyond just balloons, Helium is a high tech gas, with many uses in rocket engines, semiconductors, electronics, and health care. These sectors pressure the demand for helium in concert, making it a gas in very short supply, causing the price to rise.
Saskatchewan is one of the only places on earth with current and past production of primary Helium. This is where Royal Helium comes into play as they are one of the largest land holders searching for Helium and recently announced that testing identified zones that range in thickness from five meters to in excess of 30 meters. These zones returned levels ranging from 0.33% to 0.94%, demonstrating the commercial potential of the Climax project
Worldwide usable Helium is in short supply as demand is increasing, making it a high-priced commodity, take a seat and discover why Royal Helium is the next SmallCap Stock to discover.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 9:22 AM on Monday, April 12th, 2021
100% of the targeted metals were recycled in situ or selectively leached in solution
St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CNSX:SX.CN)(OTC:SXOOF) (FSE:85G1) is pleased to disclose the results of its initial electric vehicle (EV) cathode material battery recycling tests aimed at specific car makers and OEM battery specifications.
As previously disclosed in a press release titled “Initial Recovery Battery Test Results” dated February 22, 2021, the Company has set aside a significant portion of its laboratories resources to be able to perform “(…) additional tests to optimize the process of recovery of critical elements (…) using synthetic compounds to move the development along faster.” In a subsequent press release titled “EV Batteries Recovery Tests Results: Lithium” dated March 18, 2021, the Company disclosed that it had “(…) completed EV battery characterization for the following car makers: Tesla, General Motors (GM), Ford, Toyota, and Nissan. The batteries were sourced from industry aggregators. The Company’s chemists and metallurgists created synthetic powder clones of the metal’s components allowing the testing’s acceleration (…)” Additionally, leveraging the support of some important stakeholders in the success of Company initiatives, St-Georges’ metallurgists were able to gather data on the composition of certain batteries in development or about-to-be commercially deployed in the coming year that are Lithium-Iron-Phosphate or LFP (LiFePO4) based. These not-yet-on-the-market batteries have been conceptually characterized, synthetically reproduced, and tested with the Company’s processing technology.
Four sets of battery category, covering all current car makers previously mentioned, along with the addition of the LFP batteries, have been processed in St-Georges’ contracted pilot-plant installations:
This initial test campaign’s objective was to determine which metals were put in solution from cathode materials using St-Georges’ proprietary acid-blend. From those experiments, it can be deduced that Lithium, Iron, Phosphate, Cobalt, Nickel, and Magnesium can be expected to be found in solution when using commercial batteries, on top of other metals such as Aluminium, Manganese, and Copper that can be recuperated in situ.
It is important to note that the LFP batteries might require a slightly different process to recycle 100% of the metals. Iron content generates a small amount of magnetism during the process while everything else remains in line with other battery compounds.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 8:34 AM on Wednesday, April 7th, 2021
St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE:SX)(OTC:SXOOF) (CNSX:SX.CN) (FSE:85G1) is pleased to disclose that it has received the latest shipment of bulk material from Iconic’s (TSXV:ICM) Bonnie Claire Lithium Project in Nevada.
As previously reported, St-Georges’ metallurgists were able to concentrate through mineral processing and selective leaching the original feedstock by 25 folds, down to 4% of its initial mass where 99.99% of the lithium was leached into solution after 5 minutes at low temperature and normal atmospheric pressure.
Work on the Bonnie Claire Lithium Project material will now resume along side the on-going work being conducted on other hard rock lithium resources. Current efforts of flow sheet optimisation will focus on front-end challenges, like concentration, and also on the later purification stage, where testing of a newly designed bounding solution should reduce the number of steps required to achieve a 99%+ lithium purity.
Current hypothesis developed using an array of lithium feedstocks from different sources indicate the whole closed-loop initial cycle allows a recovery rate of 90% or better. Reprocessing of the lithium bearing proprietary acid-blend solution eventually achieves higher total recuperation and achieves battery grade purity.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Enrico Di Cesare”
ENRICO DI CESARE President & CEO of St-Georges Metallurgy & Director & VP R&D St-Georges Eco-Mining
About St-Georges
St-Georges is developing new technologies to solve some of the most common environmental problems in the mining industry. The Company controls all the active mineral tenures in Iceland. It also explores for nickel & PGEs on the Julie Nickel Project and the Manicougan Palladium Project on the Québec’s North Shore
Posted by AGORACOM
at 8:47 AM on Tuesday, April 6th, 2021
Royal Helium Ltd. (“Royal” or the “Company”) (TSXV: RHC) is pleased to announce that initial gas sample test results have returned elevated and economic levels of helium concentration from multiple formations at the Climax helium project, with tests returning levels ranging from 0.33% to 0.94% from the Deadwood, Souris River and Duperow formations. The company will now commence long term production testing of the most prospective zones to confirm flow rates and ultimately resource size.
The high graded production zones that are being tested range in thickness from five meters to in excess of 30 meters, with the ability to expand to even larger intersections. While these results are preliminary in nature and require additional confirmation, they do confirm the presence of economic helium grades on the Climax project, along with indicating that nitrogen will be the primary gas drive, though elevated levels of carbon dioxide are also present in certain tests. To date, testing has been focused on testing helium concentrations across the prospective zones with the highest level of helium detected during the drilling process. This initial concentration testing at Climax is expected to be completed over the next 10 days, following which the Royal will begin full flow testing and analysis which is expected to take an additional 30- 40 days.
Andrew Davidson, President and CEO of Royal comments “We are pleased with these initial results on our Climax helium project. Helium detection during drilling identified multiple zones of elevated helium in all three of the wells and follow-up completions testing confirmed economic helium concentrations. We look forward to the full flow testing results across all zones of interest in each of the three wells to confirm resource size and project commerciality. The fact that we have identified elevated and economic helium concentrations across significant pay zones as large as 30 meters speaks to the potential of the Climax Project.”
Posted by AGORACOM
at 10:39 AM on Wednesday, March 31st, 2021
St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE:SX) (CNSX:SX.CN) (OTC:SXOOF) (FSE: 85G1) would like to provide an update on the volcanic activities from the Geldingadalir volcano located on its Reykjanes provisional mineral exploration license in Iceland.
The volcano has been the site of a minor eruption for approximately 11 days at the time of this release. St-Georges’ geologists, working under the Company’s subsidiary, Iceland Resources EHF, have taken a few kilos of rocks to obtain additional mineral and metallurgic information about what is now some of the youngest rocks on earth. The material coming out of the volcano has been rich in Magnesium, Iron, and Titanium. This appears to be preliminarily corroborated by observing the samples collected by St-Georges submitted to a Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) reading.
According to the Icelandic government volcanologists, this is about to change with an influx of copper and potentially precious metals with lava originating from a different depth of the mantle.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) published a summary of the activities, commenting that: “(…) t he lava is basaltic and highly fluid with little explosive activity. It is a very small eruption, and the lava flow has been steady at 5-7 m3/s since its onset. Currently the extent of the lava field is within Geldingadalur but if the eruption keeps ongoing at a similar rate, it is modeled that the lava will flow east towards Merardalur valley. If the volcano continues to erupt it could eventually end up being categorized as a shield volcano. Shield volcanoes are generally formed over long time periods with lava fields extending from a few to several kilometers around its source. There is no way to tell how long the eruption will last.
The current magma is rich in MgO (8.5%) which indicates that it is from depths of around 17-20 km. There has been constant gas pollution close to the eruption site, spatially determined by local wind conditions. Gases can accumulate to life-threatening levels in certain weather conditions. There have been no indications of significant tectonic movements since the eruption started. There is currently no indication of new openings at other locations along the magma injection path.(…)”.
St-Georges and Iceland Resources would like to invite visiting geologists, volcanologists, journalists, and avid volcano tourists to get in touch with us. We can help organize visits to the site and provide geological support for scientific initiatives relating to the recent volcanic eruptions. We are also planning small group visits to the Thor Gold Project for people interested. Please send us a quick note via our website at www.st-georgescorp.com
About the Reykjanes exploration license
The Reykjanes provisional license is part of the license application for active exploration work that is being processed by the Icelandic authorities. It covers the area of the active volcano. It is located in the Reykjanes Peninsula near the towns of Keflavik and Grindavik and the International Airport. Readers can see the prospect area in the map provided by ISOR in Figure 1 below.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:14 PM on Monday, March 29th, 2021
If you think about balloons / blimps when thinking about Helium uses, we wouldn’t blame you … but you’d also be missing out on a much much bigger picture.
Looking beyond just balloons, Helium is a high tech gas, with many uses in rocket engines, semiconductors, electronics, and health care. These sectors pressure the demand for helium in concert, making it a gas in very short supply. Prices have been rising due to a shortage in supply.
Saskatchewan is one of the only places on earth with current and past production of primary Helium. This is where Royal Helium comes into play as they are one of the largest land holders searching for Helium and have already drilled 3 holes at their Climax project.
Worldwide usable Helium is in short supply as demand is increasing, making it a high-priced commodity, take a seat and discover why Royal Helium is the next SmallCap Stock to discover.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 4:38 PM on Thursday, March 18th, 2021
99.99% of the lithium leached in solution after 5 minutes at low temperature and without applying pressure.
completed EV battery characterization for 5 car makers
Pilot Testing Next
St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE:SX)(OTC:SXOOF) (FSE:85G1) (CNSX:SX.CN)is pleased to provide an update on the initial testing phase of an array of electric vehicles batteries it received at its testing installations in Québec.
The Company has completed EV battery characterization for the following car makers: Tesla, General Motors (GM), Ford, Toyota, and Nissan. The batteries were sourced from industry aggregators. The Company’s chemists and metallurgists created synthetic powder clones of the metal’s components allowing the testing’s acceleration.
This is in line with the results obtained previously by the Company’s metallurgical team that was able to leach more than 99% of the cobalt and the nickel contained in the batteries. Furthermore, the aluminium foil used to hold the different metals in the batteries’ core remains intact and can be recycled.
The Company expects to confirm these results via a series of pilot tests as it now is in possession of car makers’ specific testing protocols. Testing will be documented and independently confirmed. The Company expects to initiate the next phase, metals purification, in April. The Company hopes to be able to reduce processing time and increase acid re-usage.
EVSX and St-Georges have also identified some of the key equipment required from industrial equipment manufacturers. They expect to be able to receive the electrolysis equipment during the month of May, allowing the manufacture of lithium hydroxide.
The Company had already disclosed on February 22, 2021, that additional tests to optimize the process of recovery of critical elements were to be conducted using synthetic compounds to move the development along faster. Work is ongoing at multiple locations, speeding up delivery and further protecting intellectual property.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 9:58 AM on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021
Royal Helium Ltd. (“Royal” or the “Company”) (TSXV: RHC) announces that it has engaged two service rigs and that the completions and testing program has been initiated at Climax-1 and Climax-2. The finalized testing program, which was developed in concert with Sproul Associates Ltd., involves the sequential perforation and gas flow testing of several separate intervals identified during drilling. Finalized results from the testing program will be reported as the information becomes available.
Royal further announces that the Climax-3 helium well has been drilled to its target depth of 2,600 metres. Royal’s completion team is reviewing the log data at Climax-3 to determine the intervals to be production tested. The completion and testing program at Climax-3 will commence once testing is complete on Climax-2.
Andrew Davidson, President and CEO of Royal comments, “We are pleased to have our initial 3 wells at Climax drilled to target depth and we are excited to be production testing these high value targets. We want to thank the team from Savanna 419 for their diligent work in completing this drilling program safely and effectively”.
Mr. Davidson continues “With 2 service rigs operating we anticipate the testing to be completed on all 3 wells over the next few weeks. While any significant developments will be announced as they are received, all results will be evaluated by Sproule for a potential helium resource and production over multiple separate zones within this large structural closure”.
The three Climax wells were drilled into the Precambrian basement, directly below the Deadwood Formation. The Deadwood is a sand and shale sequence that is a known helium production zone in Saskatchewan. These first three wells are targeting different parts of the same large structural trap identified on the central portion of the Climax land block.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 10:02 AM on Monday, March 1st, 2021
WHY ROYAL HELIUM?
Worldwide usable Helium is in short supply as demand is increasing, making it a high-priced commodity
Royal Helium has aims to deliver a minimum of 1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of total inert gas into the market
Via exploration and development drilling of Helium resources in southern Saskatchewan.
Highlights:
Strategy of full-cycle inert gas capture, refining and liquefaction
Commenced 3 Well Drill Program at Climax:
Production testing of 70m of potential helium bearing intervals for CLIMAX-1
Production testing of 68m of intervals for CLIMAX-2
Currently drilling CLIMAX-3
Royal Helium will be producing: helium, nitrogen and some CO2
Saskatchewan is one of the only places on earth with current and past production of primary Helium
Helium:
Scarce: Dwindling supply combined with growing demand
Helium prices have been rising due to a shortage of supply
Technical Partners:
Saskatchewan Research Council (“SRC”): Conducting engineering and scoping study for a large-scale industrial gas polygeneration facility located in Saskatchewan with RHC
AXIOM Group: Specialize in Energy Services, Geomatics, Exploration, Environment
SPROULE Associates Ltd: consulting on the completions and testing programs and to prepare an independent evaluation of the prospective helium resource from the first three wells at Climax, in accordance with the classification, definitions and guidelines of NI 51-101.
Helium Uses:
Helium
Helium is a non-substitutable and non-renewable commodity needed in many high-tech and health care industries, with specific applications in rocket engines, semiconductors, electronics, and health care.
As these sectors continue to expand, the demand for helium expands in concert.
High value and increasing Helium price
Large and growing demand Decreasing supply
Non-substitutable
Royal Helium
Strategy of full-cycle inert gas capture, refining and liquefaction
Commenced 3 Well Drill Program at Climax:
Production testing of 70m for CLIMAX-1
Production testing of 68m for CLIMAX-2
Drill rig mobilizing to drill CLIMAX-3
Mobile, membrane separation facilities: First stage of production
2nd Stage: permanent membrane separation facility
3rd Stage: Permanent poly-generation facility that makes products from the CO2 and the N2 gases
3rd or 4th stage: liquefaction facilities allowing full downstream transportation and worldwide export.
Sell products both direct to customer and wholesale to re-sellers
Largest Helium Lease Holders in N. America
4,000 square km of prospective helium lands across southern Saskatchewan
572 sections of land in Saskatchewan
Southern Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan has a history of current and historic primary helium production. It is one of the few places on the planet where helium is produced with nitrogen rather than hydrocarbons. Saskatchewan has the potential to replace supply that is leaving the market
▪High helium concentrations
▪Stable regulatory environment
▪Geopolitically favorable especially associated with production and export of critical commodities
▪Existing infrastructure, information and personnel from a long history of oil and gas exploration and production
CLIMAX & BENGOUGH HELIUM PROJECTS
Royal Helium’s initial focus begins in two areas, Climax and Bengough, identified using a combination of seismic data, well logs and aeromagnetic surveys that narrowed down prospective areas to locate the source rocks for the helium enrichment (where the helium could be trapped and accumulated)
Royal Helium’s goal is to prove-up to 30 structures, targeting between 1.0 to 2.0 Tcf (Trillion cubic feet) of raw inert gas grading at least 1% Helium
Single well costs around CAD$1.5 million with pay back in less than 1 year
Exploration Parcel #1 – CLIMAX
Royal Helium Ltd.’s Climax-1 helium exploration well drilled to target depth of 2,600m
Royal Helium Ltd. has successfully drilled Climax-2 to a total depth of 2,611m
Selected target completion intervals for both the Climax-1 and Climax-2 helium exploration wells. (potential helium-bearing zones)
The Climax-3 drilling nearing target depth
Completion and testing of Climax-1 and Climax-2 involves the sequential perforation and production testing of approximately 70 metres of potential helium-bearing zones at Climax-1 and approximately 68 metres of potential helium-bearing zones at Climax-2, both spanning multiple structural zones.
Consistent with Climax-1, the Climax-2 well was drilled into the Precambrian basement at the base of the Deadwood formation. The Deadwood is a sand and shale sequence that is known to produce helium in Saskatchewan. These first three wells are targeting different parts of the same large structural trap identified on the central portion of the Climax land block.
The seven drill targets at Climax were identified in late 2019 after the company first reprocessed 77.6 km of 2D seismic in conjunction with historic well logs and delineated a basement structure of ~3,094 hectares of four-way structural closure.
Another 17,676 hectares of helium permits (100% crown) located immediately west of its Climax property were then granted in November 2019.
To further define the possible inert gas/helium bearing formations and refine company target wells, a deep, detailed aeromagnetic survey was flown over the Climax central structure in May.
Exploration parcel #2: Bengough
South-Central Saskatchewan with Five Target Wells Comprise roughly 50% of the total land holding
Royal has reprocessed 50.36 square km of 3-D seismic, which was acquired in 2017. The re-interpretation was completed to gain an understanding of regional basement structures and to identify potential drill targets. The 3D seismic shows a large regional feature with multiple closures.
Five (5) of these closures have been identified as initial drill targets and will be subject to further detailed investigation, including an airborne magnetometer survey.
Royal believes that the Bengough basement structure is part of a larger regional basement structural trend extending at least 60 miles north from the US border and passing through three of Royal’s Focus Areas.
Along this trend, historic helium tests have ranged from 0.70% to 0.78% at Minton, 1.39% to 1.41% at Bengough, and 0.48% to 2.45% at Ogema/Ogema North.
Royals southeast Saskatchewan lands, which comprise roughly 50% of the total land holding, show the potential for robust helium occurrences. With the strategy of full-cycle inert gas capture, refining and liquefaction, it is crucial to develop a large number of derisked drill targets throughout the Company’s significant land package.
The initial five targets identified at Bengough is an exciting first step in the southeast, growing the initial target inventory to 12 when combined with the seven targets on the Climax project in southwestern Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan Research Council
The SRC is Canada’s second-largest research and technology organization. With more than 290 employees, $91-million in annual revenue and nearly 75 years of experience, SRC provides services and products to its 1,500 clients in 27 countries around the world.
Commenced Engineering Study for a Helium Polygeneration Facility in Saskatchewan
The results of this initial engineering and economic study due Dec. 2020
Royal Helium Ltd. has initiated the engineering and scoping study for a large-scale industrial gas polygeneration facility located in Saskatchewan, which will be conducted by the Saskatchewan Research Council
The study is Royal’s first step in determining the economic potential of a large-scale facility for the separation and monetization of the gas streams associated with helium production wells in Saskatchewan.
Royal is reviewing whether there is an opportunity to monetize the complete gas stream. Current economic analysis does not include credits for other potentially commercial gases produced and processed. While the economics of helium production are significant on their own, the impact of the commercialization of other gases could substantially add to net cash flow.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 9:14 AM on Monday, February 22nd, 2021
Initial tests on lithium-ion batteries successful in the recovery of lithium, nickel and cobalt found as a coating on aluminium foil in the core of the batteries.
Leached more than 99% of the cobalt and of the nickel contained in the batteries.
St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE:SX) (OTC:SXOOF) (FSE: 85G1) (CNSX:SX.CN) is pleased to disclose that its initial tests conducted on an array of lithium-ion batteries have been successful in confirming that the selective leach, conducted with its proprietary blend of acids, allows for the recovery of the lithium, nickel and cobalt that are found as a coating on aluminium foil in the core of the batteries.
The Company’s metallurgical team was able to leach more than 99% of the cobalt and of the nickel contained in the batteries. Furthermore, the aluminium foil used to hold the different metals in the batteries’ core remains intact and can be recycled.
Company scientists are comfortable that the results obtained on these metals are repeatable and should scale. Initial lithium test results have been in line with expectations and require additional tests at scale prior to disclosure. These additional tests are ongoing, and results are expected sometime in March.
Fig. 1 The metals in solution, to the left the lithium / cobalt circuit, to the right the nickel copper circuit.
For testing, batteries were dismantled at the Company’s contracted pilot plant facility, CIMMS, under the supervision of qualified chemists and metallurgists. Enrico Di Cesare, St-Georges VP Research & Development, established the protocol and supervised the process. The batteries were dismantled manually, and the cores were immersed in St-Georges’ proprietary leach solution for 30 minutes. The Company expects to optimize and reduce this exposure duration with the aim of bringing it closer to the 5 min leach time required by the Nevada clays. Aluminium was taken out of the solution in its solid form and set aside. No test for residues was conducted on the aluminium in the preliminary tests. Metals were then targeted for recuperation in solution. The powders obtained were tested on-site and sent for independent testing by CIMMS