Arizona Lithium cutting the ribbon on its Lithium Research Centre

Arizona Lithium to officially open its Lithium Research Centre in Arizona
Centre is focused on extracting lithium from the company’s Prairie and Big Sandy project LRC has been operating for some time now

Special Report: Arizona Lithium will officially open its Lithium Research Centre in Arizona that functions as a test centre focused on the extraction of lithium from its Prairie project in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the Big Sandy project in Arizona.

The Lithium Research Centre (LRC) sits within a 9700m2 property in Tempe about 15km southeast of Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport.

It includes a 1900m2 building for research and development along with a 3000m2 secure lot for the fabrication of prototype processing equipment.

Entrance to the Lithium Research Centre. Pic: Arizona Lithium

Earlier this year, Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) shipped concentrate produced by the direct lithium extraction pilot plant at Prairie to the LRC for further processing using Counter Flow Reverse Osmosis (CFRO).

The CFRO pilot is anticipated to be operational at the LRC in the current quarter and will produce a final concentrate product to be converted into high-purity, commercial-grade lithium products.

The laboratory in the LRC. Pic: Arizona Lithium

Cutting the ribbon

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the LRC will be held later today with AZL hosting Federal & State government officials, state economic development officers and leading experts in engineering, finance and technology including Joe Lowry.

Its official partner for the event is the Arizona Commerce Authority.

“We are very excited to be officially opening the Lithium Research Centre. The facility has been operational for a period of time and has hosted government and industry leaders, who have all been very impressed with the personnel and operations at the LRC,” managing director Paul Lloyd said.

“We have been overwhelmed with the support of the Arizona government and our partner for the event, the ACA.

“We strongly believe the LRC is critical to the company in order to test and optimize our lithium processing technologies and ultimately produce lithium from both of our major projects, Prairie and Big Sandy, in the most economic and sustainable manner.”

ACA president and chief executive officer Sandra Watson said AZL’s Tempe facility strengthens Arizona’s mining and materials industry and highlighted the state’s leadership in clean energy technologies such as batteries.

This article was developed in collaboration with Arizona Lithium, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.