:: MGX Minerals Processes High Magnesium Content Lithium Brine of 76,000mg/L Mg; Nears Completion of First Commercial Rapid Lithium Extraction System

MGX Minerals Inc. and engineering partner PurLucid Treatment Solutions are pleased to announce advancement in magnesium extraction. The pretreatment removed all of the 76,000 mg/L of magnesium, reducing the post treatment concentration to non-detect levels (<1 mg/L) from lithium brine bulk samples shipped from a U.S. site currently under evaluation.

The recent optimization focused on addressing complex brines with very high magnesium levels as well as extraction to a common marketable form of magnesium compound. The magnesium was extracted in the form of magnesium hydroxide. Magnesium hydroxide is a commonly used industrial mineral with primary use in environmental applications such as municipal wastewater treatment and desulphurization of flue gases from power plants. The ratio of magnesium to lithium has long been a major issue in traditional lithium brine extraction and high magnesium has often been prohibitive in the traditional extraction of lithium from brine using solar evaporation / conventional processing as well as selective lithium extraction technologies due to the similarity of molecular properties of lithium and magnesium ions. Work was completed at the PurLucid facility in Calgary, Alberta with independent assay completed by EDS at GR Petrology Calgary, Alberta. The extraction technology continues to rely on previously developed low energy, low cost nanofiltration and is currently covered under patent and patent pending applications.

“Magnesium in brine, often referred to as hardness in water, has traditionally been one of the major issues in processing of lithium concentrate. The lithium magnesium ratio was traditionally one of the primary factors in consideration of the viability of lithium brine projects. One of the major factors in development of South American brine sources was the relatively low magnesium content. Alternatively, high magnesium content brine sources have been slow to develop such as those in the United States, China, and the Middle East for this reason,” stated MGX Minerals CEO Jared Lazerson. Adding, ”Removal of very high levels of magnesium opens up a large number of global lithium brine sources for consideration that were previously considered too high in magnesium. This represents a triumph of technology over perceived resource quality, in particular, that the magnesium has been extracted in a common form of widely used industrial mineral compound.”