PMET Resources says Koch Technology Solutions has demonstrated a more selective pathway for turning Shaakichiuwaanaan pollucite concentrate into multiple high-purity caesium chemicals. The result is promising, but the commercial case still depends on larger-scale testing, marketable samples and a planned economic assessment.
- High caesium selectivity demonstrated in Phase 2 bench-scale testing
- Potentially fewer impurity-removal stages than conventional processing
- Follow-up program to produce marketable caesium samples
- BerryPick concentrate planned for expanded proof-of-concept work
- Caesium credit to be assessed in a Q4 2026 PEA
PMET Resources Inc. (ASX:PMT) has cleared a technical hurdle in its attempt to turn a rare caesium resource into something more valuable than a concentrate. Phase 2 bench-scale work with Koch Technology Solutions has demonstrated what the company describes as a highly selective route from pollucite to multiple high-purity caesium products, potentially avoiding much of the impurity-removal work required by more conventional methods.
The significance is less about production today than about what the flowsheet might remove from the process. KTS’s proprietary technology uses selective media to target caesium and reduce the impurity profile, offering a possible route to simplify recovery and lower the cost of producing products such as caesium formate and caesium carbonate. PMET has not released detailed Phase 2 recovery, yield, purity, operating-cost or capital-cost figures, so the cost advantage remains a possibility rather than an established project outcome.
Koch Testwork Moves Beyond Concentrate Production
The work used about 6 kilograms of pollucite concentrate produced through X-ray transmission ore sorting of drill core from the Vega Caesium Zone at the CV13 Pegmatite. That feed assayed about 12% Cs2O. PMET says the testing established the potential to produce a wide variety of caesium end-products while confirming high selectivity using material from Shaakichiuwaanaan.
That is an encouraging technical result, but it remains a bench-scale demonstration based on a relatively small sample. The next program is intended to use a much larger quantity of concentrate from the BerryPick program, which is designed to generate more than 500 kilograms and potentially more than one tonne of pollucite concentrate. The proposed work would run through to gram quantities of marketable samples and include an initial assessment of operating and capital costs.
Caesium Could Become a Lithium Cost Credit
PMET’s Shaakichiuwaanaan property hosts a caesium Mineral Resource at the Rigel and Vega zones of 0.69 million tonnes at 4.40% Cs2O in the Indicated category and 1.70 million tonnes at 2.40% Cs2O in the Inferred category. The company says caesium and tantalum are expected to be co-products alongside lithium, creating the potential for future revenue to be credited against lithium production costs.
Caesium compounds trade through private bilateral and term contracts rather than a transparent exchange market. PMET cites an indicative spot reference of about US$250 per kilogram for 99% caesium carbonate, while warning that the limited observable trading activity means the figure may not represent a price achievable for its potential products. That opacity makes product qualification and downstream relationships particularly important alongside the chemistry.
Proof of Concept Comes Before Economic Value
The next commercial checkpoint is the expanded proof-of-concept program, followed by PMET’s planned Preliminary Economic Assessment in the fourth quarter of 2026. The PEA is expected to provide the first economic evaluation of a caesium credit, but that assessment will rely on assumptions that are not yet established by the Phase 2 release, including scale-up performance, product specifications, capital intensity, operating costs and customer acceptance.
For now, PMET has shown that KTS’s process can selectively handle pollucite concentrate and may support a broader product slate. The harder question is whether that laboratory advantage survives larger batches, produces saleable material consistently and translates into a meaningful contribution beside the company’s lithium project.
Bottom Line?
The chemistry has advanced, but the investment case now turns on scale-up evidence, marketable samples and the Q4 2026 caesium economic assessment.
Questions in the middle?
- Can the selective KTS process maintain product purity and recovery when tested on BerryPick’s larger concentrate volumes?
- What operating and capital costs will emerge from the expanded proof-of-concept program?
- How much value can caesium realistically contribute to the lithium project once products are qualified and sold into an opaque market?