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- Lake Resources (LKE) has confirmed the arrival of 20,000 litres of brine at partner Lilac’s pilot processing plant in California
- Lilac will process the brine to produce high-purity lithium chloride for conversion to battery-grade lithium carbonate from April
- Lilac has previously produced lithium carbonate at 99.9% purity, with very low impurities, which is a high priority for battery/cathode producers
- Lilac’s ion-exchange extraction leaves a smaller footprint than traditional evaporation methods – providing an advantage in carbon footprint reporting
- Lake holds one of the largest scalable lithium tenement packages in Argentina
- Lake Resources is up 8.8 per cent, with shares trading for 3.7 cents apiece
Lithium explorer and developer Lake Resources (LKE) has confirmed 20,000 litres of brine samples from Lake’s Kachi Lithium Brine Project in Argentina have arrived at its partner Lilac’s pilot plant in California.
Starting in March, Lilac will process the brine to produce high-purity lithium chloride for conversion to battery-grade lithium carbonate from April.
Lilac has previously produced lithium carbonate at 99.9% purity, which is a high priority for battery/cathode producers.
With the Kachi brines, Lilac will produce samples of high purity lithium carbonate for prospective buyers from late March.
Initially, these brine samples will be used to complete the commissioning of Lilac’s pilot-scale ion-exchange module.
Lake’s Managing Director Steve Promnitz says, “our key focus at this time is to prove conclusively that the Lilac Solutions pilot-scale ion-exchange module can consistently process the Kachi brines into high purity, battery-grade lithium carbonate at volume, as sought by potential buyers.”
“Thanks to investor support for Lake and our technology partner, Lilac, we are now well-positioned to advance our flagship Kachi project and ensure the delivery of a sustainable and scalable solution that is exactly what the market requires,” Steve continued.
Lake aims to produce a high-quality, low-impurity product capable of attracting premium pricing.
A pre-feasibility study for Kachi is nearing completion and is anticipated to show production costs at the lower end of the global cost curve.
Extracting lithium from brines using ion-exchange — without traditional evaporation ponds — offers a sustainable solution for downstream battery makers.
The direct extraction process re-injects brine once the lithium has been removed — rendering a much smaller footprint and less water usage.
This is an important point of difference as electric vehicle manufacturers and battery makers need to show both the quality and provenance of battery materials for ESG/sustainability and carbon footprint reporting.
Lake holds one of the largest lithium tenement packages in Argentina (roughly 200,000 hectares), providing the potential for scalable, consistent security of supply.
Lake Resources is up 8.8 per cent, with shares trading for 3.7 cents apiece as at 1:49 pm AEDT.
