Imperial Mining Reports Encouraging Results for Scandium Recoveries from the Crater Lake Project, Northern Quebec

MONTREAL, March 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Mining Group Ltd. ("Imperial") (TSX VENTURE: IPG) is pleased to announce that encouraging results have been received from its Crater Lake Phase 2 Scandium (Sc) metallurgical test program completed by MPlan-Dorfner ANZAPLAN at its lab in Hirschau, Germany.

The test work was completed on two diamond drill core bulk samples, collected from Crater Lake TG Zone during winter 2019 diamond drilling program. The samples represent typical mineralization types encountered in the zone yielding assays of up to 474 ppm scandium oxide (Sc₂O₃) over 12.5 m in an interval grading 341 ppm Sc₂O₃ over 74.9 m.  

“The Phase 2 metallurgical test work showed greatly improved scandium recovery results compared to the already favourable test results obtained from our Phase 1 work completed in 2018,” said Peter Cashin, Imperial’s President & CEO. “The amenability of the Crater Lake mineralization to concentration of the scandium and REE through these relatively simple processing technologies is very encouraging. These will have a positive impact on the project’s operating costs and capital expenditures by reducing the need for on-site milling equipment and the associated additional energy cost requirements and provide a low cost, local source of scandium for Quebec’s aluminum industry.”

A Sc mineral concentrate was produced from Crater Lake mineralization by using simple low-cost magnetic separation techniques. A combination of low intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) and wet high-intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS) produced a mineral concentrate yielding an impressive 88% Sc recovery as well 69% recovery of total rare earth elements (TREE) for one sample. A combination of LIMS and WHIMS on the second sample with differing mineralogy also yielded encouraging recoveries of 78% Sc and 56% TREE.

Additional testwork utilizing Sensor-based ore sorting and heavy liquid separation (HLS) methods confirm that X-Ray Transmission (XRT) sensor-based sorting and dense media separation (DMS) offer additional low-cost alternatives for inexpensively producing a mineral concentrate without the need of grinding, chemical reagents or extensive water consumption. DMS separation yielded recoveries of 90.6% Sc and 89.2% TREE in the mineral concentrate.