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Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. (TSX: AVL, OTCQX: AVLNF, formerly Avalon Rare Metals Inc.), is an Emerging Producer of Lithium for Battery Markets

on 3/30/2016
Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. (TSX: AVL, OTCQX: AVLNF), is a diversified specialty metals and minerals company with three advanced projects offering investors exposure to a broad range of the critical materials needed for clean technology. Avalon is now focused on its Separation Rapids Lithium Project to take advantage of the growing demand for high purity lithium chemicals in energy storage. Avalon is an established player in the lithium space with an advanced project and an experienced management team. Investors interested in lithium equities should give Avalon a close look.



Don Bubar, President and CEO of Avalon Advanced Materials (TSX: AVL, OTCQX: AVLNF), took time to update Metal News while attending the 2016 PDAC convention in Toronto. He said, “Most people know Avalon as a rare earths company because of our Nechalacho Project that dominated our story for the last ten years, but we have always held a diversified specialty metals and minerals portfolio.”

Bubar commented, “In fact, we have been a diversified rare metals company for most of the twenty years I have been running Avalon. Our first rare metals project was actually Separation Rapids Lithium, located near Kenora, Ontario, acquired in late 1996. I did not know anything about the rare metals at the time but soon realized that they had growing demand in new technology. The lithium ion battery market was not yet big enough for us to consider serving, but the lithium mineral in the deposit, called petalite, did have a well-established market in glass-ceramics. We first looked at this opportunity in the late 1990’s but were unable to secure enough interest in off-take to develop the project as an industrial minerals producer. Since then, lithium ion battery technology has advanced dramatically to become the energy storage solution for a broad range of applications, including electric vehicles. Now we are at a real turning point. The demand for lithium is overwhelming the supply side and creating a new opportunity for Avalon to develop our lithium project to supply chemicals for the lithium ion battery market.”



Avalon is well-positioned with Separation Rapids to take advantage of the growing lithium battery sector. Bubar explains, “It is a hard rock deposit hosting a highly evolved form of granitic pegmatite enriched in the rare lithium mineral petalite. It is valued in the glass ceramics industry for its lack of natural impurities, such as iron, that can discolor glass products. Now, lithium battery manufacturers are starting to require ever higher purities of the chemicals for the cathodes and anodes. Making a very high purity lithium chemical usually involves a lot of impurity removal steps, so it stands to reason that minerals containing few impurities will be easier and less costly to process to produce a very high purity chemical product.”



Avalon is currently working on the process flowsheet needed to efficiently extract a high purity lithium chemical. Bubar noted “We did some initial testwork last year that demonstrated we can readily produce battery grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. We needed more of the mineral concentrate to scale up this work, which required processing 30 tons of ore in a pilot plant. This work was completed over the last four months and we are now ready to proceed with the next phase of lithium chemical process development work. This work will generate product samples for customer evaluation and provide the data on costs needed to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment by mid-2016 on lithium chemicals production.”



The company is not a newcomer to the lithium industry. As Bubar explains, “We have been developing lithium mineral product ideas for a long time and defined an initial resource on the Separation Rapids deposit back in 1999. We have done significant work in the lithium market and know the players. We have a team that can take the project through feasibility stage. We have the metallurgical expertise in Dave Marsh to produce high purity lithium chemicals. We also have a dedicated Sales and Marketing VP, Pierre Neatby, who develops relationships with downstream consumers.”

Offtake agreements with potential consumers aren’t in place yet, but initial discussions have taken place. Bubar comments, “We are not at the offtake stage yet, but we are close. We will soon be able to provide lithium product samples to our potential customers which will then lead to commitments on offtake.”

Avalon continues to look at opportunities to serve the glass-ceramics industry with a lithium mineral product as well as a high purity chemical product for the battery industry. Bubar explains, “The flotation process will produce a concentrate of lithium minerals (the final product for the glass-ceramics industry), then this material can be further processed in a second plant to produce the lithium chemical product for the battery industry.”

Bubar believes the company is moving in a good direction: “There are new opportunities for us in the energy storage industry, which continues to grow. Right now we have about 180 million shares outstanding, with about a USD$20 million dollar market cap. We feel that our current valuation is based mostly on our rare earths asset. The market has yet to discover that we have this advanced lithium asset and recognize its potential value in our market capitalization.”

http://avalonadvancedmaterials.com/

Avalon Advanced Materials Inc.
130 Adelaide St. W, Suite 1901
Toronto, ON M5H 3P5
Tel: (416) 364-4938(416) 364-4938
Fax: (416) 364-5162
ir@AvalonAM.com




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