Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (TMRC), an exploration company targeting rare earths and other high-value industrial minerals, plans to establish a separate subsidiary to market the lithium it hopes to produce from its poly-metallic Round Top deposit.

Recent column leach tests found that Round Top rhyolite crushed and leached in sulfuric acid for 60 days (what fun!) yielded potentially economic amounts of lithium with an ore grade of 400 ppm and a 58.5% extraction rate.

Round Top Mountain – Texas

Assuming a 20,000-ton-per-day operation, TMRC envisions recovering as much as 9,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year. The company’s research suggests a potential mine life of over 100 years.

“We believe that Round Top can be a stable, long-term domestic supply of lithium,” said TMRC CEO Dan Gorski. “The formation of a lithium marketing subsidiary is an integral part of our plans to realize the potential of the non-rare earth elements that are leached from the Round Top rock.”

SEE ALSO: New study: Lithium cost swings unlikely to impact battery prices

Source: Texas Mineral Resources via Green Car Congress
Image: Phil Whitehouse (CC BY 2.0)