Director
Wardell Armstrong
Chris worked in industrial and academic research prior to moving to consultancy in 1994 as a Principal Engineer and Director of the WA Group. At Birmingham University Chris lectured copper pyrometallurgy to third year “Minerals Engineering” students and had close relationships with the James Bridge (secondary) copper smelter. In industry he worked on research and innovation projects related to the Pb/Zn Blast Furnace at Avonmouth (RTZ) including projects to investigate whether copper could be recovered together with lead and zinc. At Shell/Billiton he was a senior Project Leader working on a variety of processing projects (e.g FeNi smelting and chemistry of coal gasification slags). At Wardell Armstrong he has acted as project director for technical and commercial evaluations of mining and metallurgical processing projects throughout the world including CPR’s and due diligence in India, (Sterlite industries – Tuticorin Copper IsaSmelt Furnace) Zambia (Mufilera Furnace), DR Congo (Blast Furnace, Lubumbashi), West Africa (various Iron Ore projects) and Europe (Medet Tailings, Copper leaching and recovery project). He is currently acting as Bankers Engineer for an Antimony Smelter Project in Oman. Chris is a registered Expert with the EU, adjudicating R&I Projects and is the Research Co-ordinator of the 7.4M Euro Flexible and Mobile Processing (FAME) R&I Project. Chris works closely with banks in the City of London and is the principal WA contact with EBRD.
Pilot scale testing of the flotation and chemical processing of lepidolite concentrates from Gonçalo Pegmatite, Portugal
This presentation will discuss the FAME H2020 Project and work dealing with the production of lithium mica (lepidolite) concentrates from the Gonçalo Pegmatite, Portugal. Mica concentrates have been produced successfully in a 100kg/hour scale pilot plant located in LNEG’s Porto facility. A number of Kg’s of concentrate have been subject to a roast/leach operation to form lithium carbonate. This work indicates the potential to produce viable battery grade lithium compounds from European resources.