LithiumBank DLE test shows >98% recovery in Alberta

LithiumBank Resources (TSXV: LBNK; US-OTC: LBNKF) says tests show more than 98% recovery from direct lithium extraction (DLE) at its Boardwalk brine project in Alberta.

The DLE process by G2L Greenview Resources produced the highest purity concentrated lithium solution of 15 technologies tested or assessed to date, the company said in a release on Thursday. The results will update by year-end a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the project first issued in May, it said.

“The test results from G2L represent a significant improvement in the overall purity of the concentrated brine from the DLE process we employed in our existing PEA,” LithiumBank chief operating officer Kevin Piepgrass said in the release.

“We are very pleased because we can achieve this purity level using lower cost reagents that are readily available in central Alberta.”

DLE is transforming the lithium space for its rapid production of the battery metal in hours or days compared with traditional brine evaporation ponds that take months or years for output. It also has higher recovery rates, often more than 90%. Automakers are scrambling to secure lithium supplies as they ramp up electric vehicle assembly lines.

Watch Gianni Kovacevic, lead director at LithiumBank, discuss DLE’s advantages at a conference this month in Zurich on a panel moderated by The Northern Miner Group president Anthony Vaccaro.

The new process LithiumBank tested also showed a more than 40-fold increase in lithium concentration from feedstock at 3,000 mg per litre and the same amount in volume reduction of brine after processing, the company said.

The G2L method uses reagents a third of the cost of those used in LithiumBank’s May PEA. They account for 54% of its operating cost, the company said. It plans to start a pilot plant early next year handling as much as 10,000 litres a day of brine.

“Our focus will remain on maximizing the recovery and purity of lithium while reducing operating and capital costs,” Peter Voigt, chief technical officer of G2L, said in the same release. “We believe further efficiencies can be achieved.”