General Motors to invest US$50M in lithium startup EnergyX

General Motors’ venture capital arm will lead a US$50 million financing round for EnergyX, which is developing a more efficient method to extract lithium from salt beds.

According to company filings, the Texas-based company’s direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology portfolio can make lithium metal directly from brine and potentially in anode-ready form for EV batteries.

It is one of several companies developing the technology that could help GM filter the metal for its Ultium battery packs from some types of brine that the mining industry has largely ignored in favour of evaporation ponds and open-pit mines.

In 2022, EnergyX became the first firm to design, build and commission an in-field pilot plant in the Lithium Triangle.

According to the company, its LiTAS technology increases lithium recovery rates to over 90% from the current industry standard of 30-40% using ponds and achieved 94% during their field trials.

“After a successful five-month pilot program proving the efficacy of the LiTAS lithium refinery process, EnergyX will scale those systems to more robust market demonstration plants located at five regional test beds in North and South America, followed by full-scale commercialization,” GM said in an Apr. 11 press release.

“EnergyX is developing a novel direct lithium extraction process that’s not only cost competitive but also will reduce energy, land and water usage as compared to the current extraction and processing process for brine-based lithium,” said Jeff Morrison, GM’s vice president of Global Purchasing and Supply Chain. 

GM will have the right of first refusal to buy lithium from any projects that EnergyX develops.

The EnergyX investment comes after GM agreed to pay $650 million in January to become the largest shareholder in Lithium Americas Corp, which is developing the Thacker Pass clay lithium project in Nevada, our sister title MINING.com reports.

The automaker has also invested in privately held Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd (CTR), which is trying to use DLE technology to develop a geothermal brine project in southern California.