Allonnia today announced its next pilot of Allonnia D-Solve®, its bolt-on technology designed to help mineral processors produce more critical minerals from existing operations, following the successful completion of their first mine-site pilot. Operating continuously for three months at Talon Metals’ Eagle Mine in Michigan, the only active nickel mine in the United States, D-Solve processed 30 tonnes of nickel sulfide concentrate, reducing magnesium oxide by up to 30% and increasing nickel grade by up to 2%. Building on these results, Allonnia will conduct its next D-Solve pilot at SGS Lakefield in Ontario with support from Talon Metals, evaluating the technology on Talon’s nickel sulfide concentrate.
Magnesium oxide is a key penalty element for nickel smelters, and mills often sacrifice nickel recovery to keep concentrates within specification. By selectively removing magnesium oxide and other impurities, D-Solve can relax that trade-off, allowing operators to recover more nickel from ore they are already mining. This creates an opportunity to increase U.S. nickel supply using existing infrastructure.
“The technology met the performance expectations established for the trial, successfully removing impurities and improving concentrate grade. The trial was executed safely and with strong scientific rigor, and the results demonstrate encouraging progress in addressing an important mining challenge,” said Hugo Staton, Director of Processing at Talon Metals.
The Eagle Mine pilot represented an important scale-up milestone for D-Solve, moving the technology from controlled third-party testing into a live mine environment. Allonnia previously ran the complete D-Solve process in a five-day integrated continuous trial at SGS Lakefield, validating selective magnesium removal, nickel concentrate upgrading and Allonnia Biosolution® regeneration and reuse.
The upcoming trial will build on those learnings while providing an independent environment to evaluate D-Solve against the characteristics of another nickel sulfide concentrate. It will be conducted through Allonnia and SGS’s recently announced centralized pilot program at SGS Lakefield, which gives mining companies a dedicated pathway to evaluate D-Solve on their own concentrates without installing infrastructure at their operations, shortening the path from evaluation to commercial deployment.
“Critical mineral producers need to get more from the mines and infrastructure we already have,” said Nicole Richards, CEO of Allonnia. “Eagle Mine showed D-Solve can move beyond the laboratory and operate continuously at a mine site, selectively removing impurities and improving concentrate quality at a meaningful scale. With Talon Metals and SGS, we’re applying those learnings to new minerals and building a repeatable pathway for mining companies to evaluate how D-Solve can help unlock more critical minerals from their operations.”
D-Solve is a bolt-on mineral-processing technology that integrates with existing operations to selectively remove gangue minerals and other impurities that can constrain mineral recovery and concentrate quality. At the heart of the technology is the Allonnia Biosolution®, a recyclable solution generated from naturally occurring microbes that selectively dissolves unwanted gangue while preserving valuable minerals, enabling the upgraded concentrate to return to the processing flow and the Biosolution to be regenerated and reused. By improving concentrate grade and enabling greater mineral recovery, D-Solve helps mining operations get more value from existing infrastructure while reducing unwanted material sent to downstream facilities.
Allonnia is progressing D-Solve across nickel, copper, molybdenum, lithium and other critical-mineral applications. The upcoming pilot, supported by Talon Metals, represents the next step toward developing a repeatable commercial deployment model for the technology.
About Allonnia
Allonnia makes science work at industrial scale. Allonnia develops solutions that help industries recover valuable resources, reduce waste, and improve operational performance. Allonnia’s D-Solve® technology helps producers increase critical mineral production by selectively removing impurities from mineral concentrates, enabling greater metal recovery, improved concentrate quality, and more sustainable operations. Learn more at allonnia.com.
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