Rock Tech Lithium (RCK.V) on Monday said the ore-sorting program for the Georgia Lake Lithium Project in northern Ontario is complete, providing a way to restart key Georgia Lake development.

The ore-sorting program, funded by Ontario's Critical Minerals Innovation Fund (CMIF), and conducted with Queen's University and Stark Resources, a German company, evaluated UV laser-based sorting and sensor-based sorting for the pre-concentration of mineralized material from the project. Test work was also conducted on two sample sets.

Early engineering work also identified a potential pathway to halve future crushing and concentrator capital cost, Rock Tech said. The reduction is expected to be driven by a combination of ore sorting and plant specification optimization.

Georgia Lake project's 2022 pre-feasibility study (PFS) contemplated a 9-year mine life, production of 100,000 tonnes per year of 6% spodumene concentrate, and an indicated mineral resource of 10.6-million tonnes at 0.88% lithium oxide and an inferred mineral resource of 4.2 million-tonnes at 1.00% of lithium oxide.

Against this PFS baseline, the CMIF-supported ore-sorting results indicate a potential pathway to further improve project economics in future technical studies. The observed 1.4x to 1.8x upgrade factor means that sorted material can carry materially higher lithium grade into downstream processing than the original feed stream, improving concentrator efficiency and potentially allowing lower-grade material to be considered in future mine planning scenarios, the company said.

Rock Tech Lithium shares were last seen up $0.05 to $1.00 on the TSX Venture Exchange.