The way technology has escalated its way into our modern lives, it’s inevitable to diminish its presence. Be it our phones, laptops, tractors, cars, electrical transmission lines, and jewelry as well. To sum it up, all our lives revolve around technology and the perks of these advancements.
With all these technological advancements, a trigger questions is, “do we realize what goes into their making?” Well, it’s our mineral resources that our Earth is abundantly rich with. Without these, our industries would fall, and our standards of living too.
Thus, to maintain a balance between our mineral wealth and our vital technological aids, Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. retains sustainability by restoring mineral wealth to the Earth in pioneering ways and by improving supply chains for earth elements in industries such as aerospace, medicine, and others. Avalon acts like a mediator for the one who values these elements.
To restore sustainable elements to our ecosystem, the CEO of Avalon Advanced Materials Inc., Don Bubar, formed Avalon with a VSE listing and over 20,000 shareholders worldwide. Avalon attained an ESG Risk Rating in 2021 and the ranks rose to 5% of a total of 150 industry companies.
Currently, Avalon is primarily focused on its five perilous projects: Rare Earths, Cesium Tantalum Lithium, Differentiating Lithium, and Technological evolutions like Clean Technology.
Let us know more in detail about Avalon’s marvels.
The Rare Earths
Seeing its rooted experience as a steadfast name that will maintain its stance on sustainability and social responsibility, Avalon provides its tactical resources and process solutions to efficiently empower the full functioning of supply chains in North America.
Furthering ahead, it is interesting to note that, to utilize its strategic reserve inventory to serve as a leading North American company, the company is standing tough amidst a small scale of evolving companies towards innovative ways. The main strategy of Avalon is to adopt principles of sustainability to align with impending customers like clean technology, who demand their supply chains to be purely sustainable.
With the ever-growing demand for elements like lithium, tantalum, lithium, tantalum, cesium, rubidium, indium, gallium, germanium, zirconium, and tin for utilization in Medicine, Aerospace, modern electronics, clean energy, defence, the rich mineral resource endowment can take the lead in implementing environmentally and socially responsible development.
There is already a significant shortage of lithium as increased demand grows within new secure supply chains for lithium battery materials for electric vehicles. From 2006-2014, the potential to create rare earth from the Basal Zone was highly discussed. In 2019, Avalon and Cheetah Resources Pvt Ltd shook hands upon an agreement where Cheetah attained the surface of the T-Zone and Tardif Zone with light earth resources for C$5 million and kept a 100% interest in the Basal Zone for potential development.
The Trio of Cesium Tantalum Lithium
The work program carried out in 2001 confirmed the presence of substantial cesium and tantalum mineralization associated with lithium in the field of pegmatite dykes. Furthermore, one dyke was found to contain rich cesium mineralization. Drilling identifies a preliminary resource of 340,000 tonnes at 2.294% CS2O and 0.037% Ta2O5 with noteworthy room for expansion. This was revived by Avalon in 2020 with a sampling program focused on cesium potential. Past test work has shown an effective process using sensor-based ore sorting to concentrate the rare cesium mineral pollucite.
Due to the short supply of cesium, now the process of new technology and new cesium production needs to meet the increasing demand as the prices have raised with the increasing demand. Follow-up geological and geochemical surveys were conducted in 2021, which successfully defined total cesium aims for future drilling.
Subset of Fleet Lithium
In 1997, the Separation of Fleet Lithium Project discovered a minimum of 10 million tonnes and was acquired by Avalon. It is unusual in that it is fortified with the rare highpurity lithium mineral petalite, which has long been in demand for high-tech glass-ceramic applications. It is a potential producer of both petalites for glass ceramics and lithium hydroxide for battery applications.
In April 2022, Avalon entered an LOI with Essar Group in collaboration for the development of a regional lithium battery materials refinery in Ontario, Thunder Bay. It would process lithium mineral concentrates from other producers from the many pegmatites that occur in northwest Ontario.
Avalon has a strong appeal in the petalite product line for high-strength glass and ceramic products. With the growing ceramic industry through the invention of new products, all expect lithium, where a high purity lithium aluminium silicate like petalite is frequently the preferred ingredient for including lithium in the glass formulation.
Business Opportunities in Clean Technology
Avalon has been evaluating several opportunities to apply innovative extraction technologies to recover critical minerals from historic mine wastes, including acid mine drainage, at closed mine sites. Some examples of closed mine sites developed decades ago to recover one traditional commodity where ore is contained by many minerals that had no value then, but now they do have it.
Avalon’s East Kemptville Tin-Indium Project (currently inoperative) is an excellent example of a closed site where only tin was produced historically but the resource obtained indium, gallium, germanium, and lithium, accompanied by copper and zinc, sits on the surface in 25 million tonnes of waste generating acid mine drainage.
Avalon’s Future Initiatives
Avalon intends to procure and process a 5,000-tonne bulk sample collected in 2021 and used during demonstrations of a scaled-up dense media separation facility. It will produce large product samples for glass and ceramic manufacturers that have expressed interest and will be used for finalizing process flowsheets and design parameters for the concentrator and the refinery.
The goal is to recover the elements of economic interest at a much lower cost compared to a new mining operation while fully remediating long-term environmental liabilities. Alongside, Avalon plans to reactivate the project as soon as it can secure surface rights from BHP, who continues to wedge Avalon’s access with no plans for reactivation of sites.
