American Manganese receives patent for manganese recovery process

13th June 2013 By: Henry Lazenby - Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Manganese mining hopeful American Manganese this week received a patent for its proprietary manganese recovery process, allowing for the economical beneficiation of low-grade ore.

American Manganese said it had received US patent No 8460681 from the US Patent and Trade Mark Office, which represented a significant milestone for the company, as the invention was now secured as a key asset that could be exclusively capitalised.

The company said the invention was a “technical breakthrough”, as it enabled the recovery of manganese from a low-grade resource with significantly less energy and environmental impact than conventional processing methods.

The US Bureau of Mines had developed the framework for the process from the 1940s to 1980, but was never able to make it economically viable.

British Columbia-based independent research firm Kemetco Research successfully completed the process to demonstrate it could compete with other electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) and electrolytic manganese dioxide producers in the lower percentile of costs for producers anywhere in the world.

The company said it would apply to register the patent in other countries that could be able to adopt the process on contract. A patent for China had already been applied for.

American Manganese, in May, reported that a preliminary feasibility study for the fully owned Artillery Peak manganese project had revealed an “economically attractive” financial model.

The project is most sensitive to the price of EMM, followed by operating costs and capital costs. The price of EMM was expected to climb substantially through 2021. However, Artillery Peak’s EMM production cost was estimated to be much lower than published Chinese production costs, making the project economically attractive in the long run.

The company, last year, announced that it had tasked a Canadian research company to evaluate the production of lithium manganese oxide, used in batteries that can be recharged in two minutes. Kemetco Research would do “proof-of-concept” testing for lithium manganese dioxide using ore from Artillery Peak.