High-grade lithium carbonate produced from Prairie brine. Pic supplied: (AZL).
(D)LEading the Pack: Arizona Lithium confirms high-purity carbonate from Prairie project using direct lithium extraction tech
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- Testing at AZL’s Lithium Research Centre (LRC) confirms >99% purity battery-grade material from Prairie
- Preparations for the final phase of DLE pilot plant testing are underway
- Prairie is the highest grade indicated brine resource in Canada @ 127mg/l Li
- Prairie preliminary feasibility study (PFS) on course to be completed in December
The direct lithium extraction (DLE) and cross flow reverse osmosis (CFRO) of brine from Prairie is confirmed to produce >99% purity battery-grade carbonate from test work at Arizona Lithium’s research centre.
The Prairie lithium brine project in Saskatchewan, Canada is one step closer to producing 10,000 litres of battery-grade lithium concentrate from its pilot plant after Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) confirmed DLE and CFRO techniques can easily process material into a high-grade product.
AZL holds a proprietary DLE tech using an ion-exchange material that selectively removes lithium from brine which the company says could have a global application in the future as it’s being tested on lithium resources from around the world.
It’s applying the tech to its Big Sandy and Prairie projects, with exploration at the latter recently upgrading the endowment by 40% to 5.7Mt lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), with 4Mt LCE into the higher confidence indicated category @ 127mg/L Li – making Prairie the highest grade resource in Canada.
High-purity lithium extraction confirmed
AZL says the confirmation of using the DLE and CFRO processes for battery-grade lithium are significant for its pathway to commercial production, as it demonstrates much lower capex and opex than conventional technologies.
“Very high grade product is produced, more efficiently and more cost effectively because the DLE tech works extremely well to reject the impurities that create expensive down stream processing steps,” AZL MD Paul Lloyd says.
The company plans to leverage the new design and production philosophy to bring Prairie into production at its nearby pilot plant which is due to be commissioned next month.
“Following the recently announced successful resource upgrade, we are very excited to have produced lithium carbonate at our LRC in Arizona.”
“This further justifies the investment we have made into research, which will ultimately be rewarded by fast-tracking both the Big Sandy and Prairie lithium projects.
“We are focused on the rapid development of the resource at Prairie and producing lithium carbonate is a very positive step,” he says.
“The tech team will soon have larger quantities of upgraded brine from the pilot test plant to produce high grade Lithium carbonate to distribute to strategic investors and off take partners.”
“We are all eagerly awaiting the upcoming DLE pilot plant operation in November which will allow us to produce further lithium concentrate and ultimately move Arizona Lithium one step closer to its first commercial facility, first Lithium production and the corresponding cash flows.”
A pivotal PFS is on course to be completed December this year.
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.
