lithium extraction

Traditional extraction methods cause environmental harm, emitting significant CO2 and damaging ecosystems.

DLE technologies offer a more sustainable alternative, but their effectiveness needs careful assessment to meet industrial demands responsibly. While new Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technologies are emerging, many fall short of commercial viability, especially for low-concentration brine sources.

Conventional Lithium Extraction

The Frantic Hunt for Lithium

Lithium, an integral ingredient in EV batteries and energy storage, is gradually supplanting petroleum and natural gas as the critical commodity for the ongoing green energy revolution. All battery chemistries, including NMC, LFP, solid-state, and silicon anodes, require lithium as the key element. Lithium demand is projected to increase by more than 10-fold by 2040 compared to today.

The Lithium Paradox

While paving the way for a greener future, conventional methods of lithium extraction, such as hardrock mining and salt lake mining, inevitably harm the environment through soil degradation, biodiversity loss, water contamination, and substantial greenhouse gas emissions.

A recent study by MIT revealed that the extraction of one tonne of lithium emits approximately 15 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. It has been further estimated that the carbon footprint of an electric vehicle is larger than that of a gasoline car until it has been driven at least 50,000 miles, due to emissions resulting from the acquisition and processing of primarily lithium.

The advent of (DLE) technologies has been hailed as a potential solution. However, it is imperative to critically evaluate the true efficacy of these technologies and ensure that they address the environmental concerns associated with conventional lithium extraction methods.

Competing DLE

DLE Claims

DLE technologies are often paraded to resolve the following issues that arise from conventional lithium brine extraction:

High Mg/Li Ratio: A high magnesium-to-lithium ratio complicates lithium extraction, as magnesium competes for absorbents due to their similar chemical properties. This competition results in inefficient separation processes and significantly escalates operational costs.

High Water Usage: The production of one tone of lithium can consume up to 70,000 liters of water, leading to severe ecological depletion and disruption of local communities.

Long Production Time Frame: Traditional lithium extraction methods using evaporation ponds can take as long as two years to yield results.

Low Yields: South American brine producers typically recover only 30-40% of available lithium, with the remaining reserves being discarded—leading to substantial losses of valuable resources.

Field Demonstration

Our field demonstration units, under construction, will be mounted on 40 ft mobile containers that can be deployed and re-deployed at various sites to assess the techno-economic feasibility and further finetune the extraction process based on the specific characteristics of the potential asset.

The DLE Reality

While many DLE companies assert they can resolve all four key challenges, in reality, these technologies often fall short in one or more areas.

As a result, successful DLE implementations are typically limited to sporadic, small-scale lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) production in salt lakes that were previously non-viable or to marginal improvements supporting traditional evaporation pond operations.

Unsurprisingly, there has yet to be any commercial success in processing lithium brine feedstocks with concentrations below 200 ppm.

Grade Prerequisite

Only work effectively with high lithium concentration For lower grade feedstocks, onerous pre-processing through heating is often adopted with additional cost and waste products

Additional Steps

Pre-treatment ot brine (through heating to 80’C and acding chemicals etc.) is often needed to remove impurities ot various kinds, resulting in contamination of water sources and significant energy consumption. especially in high altitude

Highly Specific

Application of highly selective absorbent are determined through exhaustive trial-and-error for each brine source. making successes difficult to replicate across different salt lakes with different chemical composition

Operating Cost

Absorbents and membranes often wear out within a year and are expensive to replace

Manual

Most processes are non-continuous and therefore difficult to automate at scale

Ecological Harm

Many DLE technologies might require larger freshwater volumes than current evaporative practices, Addition of chemicals may result in environrmental pollution

Our Approach

A New World of Infinite Lithium Supply

Current documented lithium reserves of 20 million tonnes, combined with extraction yields below 50%, suggest that global lithium reserves may be depleted sooner than anticipated. However, our ability to economically extract lithium from low-grade geothermal and oilfield brines opens up vast new resource potential. Depending on the grade of the brine feedstock, production costs could comfortably fall within the 1st to 2nd quartile of the global lithium cost curve.

It is estimated that over 10 billion tonnes of produced water from oil fields are available annually, with lithium concentrations ranging from 10-200 ppm, as confirmed by USGS and GLJ publications. We are currently testing samples provided by a major energy producer, which show reasonably high lithium and low magnesium content, ideal for Lithium Infinity extraction.

Without any capex investment in drilling, 10 billion tonnes of oilfield brine could potentially yield approximately 2.5 million tonnes of annual petro lithium production, assuming an average grade of 50 ppm and 95% recovery. Additionally, many suspended oil wells with high water-cut and high lithium content could be reactivated for lithium production with minimal capital investment.

Furthermore, more than 5 billion tonnes of brine per year from desalination and geothermal sources, primarily in the MENA region, could be tapped, potentially translating into another 1 million tonnes of annual LCE production.