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A guide to DLE, the technology that could transform lithium mining | Projects are seeking ways to speed the metal to market BATTERY METALS
BY COLIN MCCLELLAND
B
rine lithium mining is at a crossroads. Traditionally, it’s used evaporation ponds which can take months or years to produce the battery metal. Now, more and more
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brine projects are trying a group of technologies called direct lithium extraction (DLE). Advocates say it could slash production times to hours and days, improve recovery and reduce environmental impacts compared to the ponds that can be 60 sq. km in size. Companies in testing say they’re
Clean Tech Lithium’s Laguna Verde project in Chile’s Atacama Region. CLEAN TECH LITHIUM
already outperforming Goldman Sachs estimates this year of DLE recovery rates of at least 80% vs evaporation ponds at around 50%. And they’re beating the bank’s rough DLE operating cost guide of US$5,700 per tonne of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). It was selling for US$22,675 a tonne at press time, according to Dow Jones. Even if less than half of Latin America’s brine projects adopt the technology, annual LCE output will increase by as much as 140,000 tonnes, the bank said. That’s 19% of last year’s global production, according to world leader Australia. There are three main DLE types: > Adsorption: A brine flows across a material such as clay, silicate or carbon known as an adsorbent. Lithium adheres to cavities on the surface and is collected by washing the adsorbent with water and diluted lithium chloride. Some processes use adsorbent made from lithium aluminum-layered double hydroxide chloride, known as LDH. > Ion exchange: Works like a water softener to extract the ions of lithium out of the brine. The brine flows through material, often a polymer resin in the form of small round beads, that acts as a filter. It is washed with acid, often hydrochloric, to collect the lithium, then neutralized with a base such as sodium hydroxide. The downside includes the environmental risk and cost of using acid and base. Also, the resin must be made to suit each brine’s chemistry, which is different. > Solvent extraction: This pro-
cess involves using a solvent such as kerosene to capture lithium from the brine. Despite the appeal of its high recovery rates, few proj-
DLE RECOVERY RATES TYPICALLY SURPASS
90% VS ~50%
FOR EVAPORATION PONDS ects use this method and most DLE proponents see little future in it at least partly because of its environmental impact. International Battery Metals (CSE: IBAT; US-OTC: IBATF), a lithium extraction technology company based in Houston, has developed its own method which it calls absorption and adsorption. John Burba, considered the father of DLE, developed the process after decades in the business. He designed the initial adsorption plant for Livent’s (NYSE: LTHM) Hombre Muerto project in Argentina, which expects first LCE this quarter and commercial amounts by year’s end. “This process, it’s not the same but it’s very similar to the Livent process. We’ve simplified it dramatically in this particular situation,” Burba, IBAT executive chairman and director of global technology, said by phone. “We are getting remarkably sharp sep-
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arations between the brine and the water.” The company wants to start using the technology on a project this year in the United States or South America, but the site hasn’t been selected. Joshua Hebert, vice-president of field operations, says the company is dealing with a range of clients, all with non-disclosure agreements so he can’t say who they are. “We currently have the only working commercial DLE mobile Lithium continued on P7 >
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