Property geology is largely based on GTK's intelligence results, because Keliber conducted only detailed geological, geochemical, mineralogical and geophysical research in limited areas. The area Keliber includes such properties: Länttä, Syväjärvi, Rapasaari, Outovesi, Leviäkangas, Emmes.

At Länttä, the bedrock is covered by basal till, varying in thickness from 1 m to about 7 m with the pegmatite veins hosted by metavolcanic intermediate rocks, metagreywacke schists and plagioclase porphyrite. The spodumene pegmatite consists of two veins parallel to the host bedding and with a maximum thickness of the two veins of about 10 m. The total length of the veins is about 400 m based on drilling results from 2004 and 2005.

At Syväjärvi, bedrock is covered by sandy till with a mean thickness of about 5 m with the pegmatite veins intruding and cross cutting host mica schist and metagreywacke in an anticlinal structure. Metavolcanic rocks include metatuff, lapille metatuff, metaagglomerate and plagioclase porphyrite. The thickest drilled pegmatite intercepts are 20 - 30 m in true thickness. The pegmatite veins at Syväjärvi dip under Lake Syväjärvi and a 71 m tunnel was driven into the deposit from the lake edge to enable bulk sampling.

At Rapasaari, the bedrock is covered by peat and till, varying in vertical thickness from 3 m to almost 20 m with the pegmatite veins intruding mica schist and metagreywackes in a synclinal system. Metavolcanic rocks occur in the central area between Rapasaari East and West and include metatuff or metatuffite and small zones of plagioclase porphyrite. The thickest veins have a true thickness close to 20 m.

At Outovesi, the bedrock is covered by till with a mean thickness of 10 m with the pegmatite veins being hosted by mica schist and metagreywacke. At Outovesi the length of the deposit is almost 400 m. The thickest veins have a true thickness close to 13 m.

At Leviäkangas, the bedrock is covered by till with a mean thickness of 7 m with the pegmatite veins being hosted by mica schist and metagreywacke. The main deposit is about 250 m long and the maximum thickness is close to 15 m.

At Emmes, the bedrock is covered by till with a mean thickness of 10 m with the pegmatite veins being hosted by mica schist and metagreywacke. The pegmatite vein is about 400 m long and the maximum thickness is about 20 m. Drilled pegmatite intersections reach over 28 m with the true thickness being 70-90% of the drilled intersection.

Pegmatites in this region have been classified into the albite-spodumene subgroup of the LCT (Li, Cs, Ta) pegmatite family. These Paleoproterozoic 1.79 Ga (U-Pb columbite age) albite-spodumene pegmatites crosscut the Svekofennian 1.95 to 1.88 Ga supracrustal rocks, which are composed of mica schists, metagreywackes and volcano-related metasediments with some intercalations of sulphide-bearing black schists. The LCTpegmatites are younger than the 1.89 to 1.88 Ga peak of regional metamorphism. Large pegmatite granites in the Kaustinen area have been interpreted as a potential source of the albite-spodumene pegmatites.

The spodumene pegmatites of the Kaustinen area resemble each other petrographically, mineralogically and chemically. They are typically coarse grained, light coloured and mineralogically similar, having albite (37-41 wt%), quartz (26-28 wt%), K-feldspar (10-16 wt%), spodumene (10-15 wt%) and muscovite (6-7 wt%) as the main minerals and generally in this quantitative order. Pegmatites show small variations in the distribution of the main minerals but well-developed internal zonation is mainly lacking. The only systematic texture observed is the perpendicular orientation of spodumene crystals to the pegmatite vein contacts.

Studies show that the chemical, mineralogical and geometallurgical differences between the six deposits are small. Currently, spodumene is the only economic mineral identified in the pegmatite veins; other lithium minerals for example petalite, cookeite, montebrasite and sicklerite are found only as trace quantities. Columbite-tantalite is an important accessory mineral having potentially some economic significance. The Li2O content of spodumene is 7.0%, 7.21% and 7.22% for Syväjärvi, Rapasaari and Leviäkangas, respectively. The main impurity in spodumene is iron, FeO content of the mineral varying in the deposits between 0.3 and 1.2%.

Variation in the grindability between the deposits is small and geometallurgical studies show that the hard component in the ores is spodumene and therefore the specific grinding energy shows positive correlation with the lithium grade. In flotation response deposits show small differences mainly due to variation in the lithium head grade. Variation in the ore texture, spodumene grain size, colour or alteration does not have impact on processability. The wall rock dilution has been found to have negative impact for flotation lowering the concentrate grade. In this sense Syväjärvi, where the wall rock dilution is plagioclase porphyrite, has proven to be slightly easier to process than other deposits hosted by mica schist. Minimising the wall rock in flotation is important and therefore selective mining and optical sorting will play a significant role in controlling the flotation feed.

Conventional Truck and Shovel was selected as the most suitable mining method for the open pit mining areas. This method involves the use of large, off-highway haulage trucks loaded directly by large shovels or excavators.

The main underground mining method is bench and fill mining and is appropriate for this style of deposit with each ore body being accessed from a decline. Mining will advance from bottom upwards in 20 m high mining lifts and back fill will be waste rock from the open pit and development drives.

Pit and Underground Mine Design.
The geotechnical parameters apart from ramp width required for the pit design were obtained from the Pöyry Geotechnical Study. The ramp width has been calculated using 2.5 times the width of the overall haul truck width. The haul truck used for the design was the Caterpillar 777, which has an overall width of 6.4 m. A 16 m ramp width is used for all pits except for Outovesi, which is a small-scale operation, so a narrower ramp can be used. The 16 m ramp allows for drain ditches and safety berms to be constructed. The final benches in the pit designs have been designed using single lane access which allows the retrieval of extra ore at the base of the pits.

Design of the underground mines provides details of the declines (location, gradient etc.) and the raises needed for ventilation and backfill. The stopes have been designed using €100/t NSR block cut-off and a minimum mining width of 5 m.

The production schedule has been developed on an annual basis. The recommended mining sequence is as follows:

1) Syväjärvi Open Pit.
2) Rapasaari Open Pit and Underground.
3) Länttä Open Pit and Underground.
4) Emmes Underground.
5) Outovesi Open Pit.

Primary crushing will be at the mine site using a mobile crushing unit. The primary crushed ore will be stockpiled for loading and transported to the ROM ore stockpile at the concentrator. The ROM ore stockpile and homogenisation area will be sufficient for ore blending and will provide a minimum capacity of around two weeks’ buffer for the mill production.

The concentrator crushing, and sorting plant comprises screening, secondary and tertiary crushing with fine and coarse ore sorting.

A two-stage rod-ball mill grinding circuit was selected with the rod mill operating in open circuit and the ball mill in closed circuit with wet screening. Oversize from the wet screening will be returned to the ball mill and undersize will be pumped to de-sliming cyclones.

The process flowsheets developed are based on unit operations that are proven in the mineral processing and chemical industries, although the soda pressure leach process (in continuous mode) is not yet in commercial operation. However, the overall process has been proven at pilot plant scale.

The key criteria for the Project are:
• The plant is designed for a nominal ore throughput of 500 000 tpa and a design value of 600 000 tpa;
• The annual lithium hydroxide production rate will be 12 500 tonnes (11 000 tonnes LCE) at the selected nominal throughput rate;
• Head grade of the spodumene ore will be 1.04 Li2O% over the life of mine;
• Target Li2O content of the spodumene concentrate is 4.5% and the final product, LiOH-H2O will be 99% pure (56.5% LiOH).

Spodumene Concentrator
The spodumene concentrator at Kalavesi is designed to produce a flotation concentrate containing 4.5% Li2O for the downstream lithium hydroxide production process. I ........