Who needs Geology in Industrial Minerals?
For full transparency, I’m going back in time on this one, but I feel it’s still highly relevant, especially given the number of lithium, phosphate, potash, and other projects being kicked around these days. In the industrial minerals space, mining and geology have historically taken a back seat to processing, marketing, and sales. Unfortunately, this resulted in many excellent deposits being poorly understood for deposit mineralogy, chemistry, paragenesis, and structure. Adding to the mad “white gold rush” in lithium these days, are we setting ourselves up for failure by assuming we can economically extract product from complex deposits which may not be well-characterized geologically?
The main points of this presentation were presented a few years ago at an SME Industrial Minerals luncheon, but they remain relevant in IndMin as well as other commodities. A solid foundation of understanding geological variability as it applies to mining, recovery, products, and customers is essential for project success. For example, having high Li2O grades is great for press releases, but it doesn’t translate to an economic project if the lithium contained is bound within unextractable minerals. Furthermore, the deleterious chemistry of projects can often be more important than the primary grade itself. Ask anyone who’s worked at a porphyry copper mill to tell you what As, F, gypsum, and talc will do to recovery and economics even if the head grade is 0.8% Cu. If concentrations of deleterious materials are high enough, the final product can be entirely rejected, giving it a negative value.
Unlike many metal mines, the final product in industrial minerals often has less to do with an element (Au, Ag, Cu), than with a specific set of chemical and physical properties that make the product valuable to particular customers. Additionally, we often say the tail wags the dog in IndMin as new products, mixes, and uses are often discovered that may materially change a deposit’s value, ore/waste cutoffs, or demand specs. In order to proactively address these changes, a strong foundation of deposit geology is key. All too often we hear companies just now realizing “Hey, we have Li grades in our waste!”. That’s all fine but it may be an entirely different story to determine whether that material is economic. It is certainly better late than never to understand your deposit but it’s best for investors and the company to have geology well-characterized and integrated throughout the value chain. Ultimately, we’re in the business of turning rocks into money. One would hope that the more we understand about all the rocks on a property, the more efficient and profitable our business will become.
Check out the presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Ex7Pe_TME
