The lithium hydroxide resolution generated by the hydroxide pilot plant will likely be despatched offsite to a different location operated by the third-party vendor to finish evaporation and crystallization work to provide battery-quality lithium hydroxide. This hydroxide pilot will likely be operated on the South West Arkansas challenge location for a number of months.
“The profitable set up and commissioning of this hydroxide pilot is one other instance of the corporate’s method to utilizing novel technological options to construct a brand new era of lithium crops in North America. The testing and operation of this pilot provides our design crew and challenge companions larger flexibility after we come to design the business plant at our South West Arkansas challenge,” commented Dr. Andy Robinson, president of Normal Lithium.
To the corporate’s data, the challenge location at Lanxess’ South plant in Arkansas is at the moment the one location in North America the place lithium is repeatedly being extracted from brine utilizing a contemporary DLE course of and being transformed into each lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.
Within the meantime, with sights set on increasing its useful resource holdings, Normal Lithium has additionally been conducting an intensive geological, geochemical and geophysical evaluation of enormous areas of the Smackover Formation, which is positioned west of the South West Arkansas challenge. The corporate and its contractors are at the moment redrilling an present manufacturing properly deeper into the Smackover Formation.
Moreover, the front-end engineering design (FEED) and definitive feasibility research (DFS) work for Normal Lithium’s first business challenge can also be totally underway. The challenge – often known as Section 1A – contemplates processing the brine that’s at the moment being dealt with by Lanxess at its South facility, the place the corporate’s repeatedly working pre-commercial DLE demonstration plant is positioned. The outcomes of the FEED research will likely be summarized in an NI 43-101 DFS report throughout the first half of 2023.
“Our first 1A challenge at Lanxess’ South plant is meant to be the primary of many Normal Lithium crops within the area, and in consequence, we’re working to actively increase our assets in a strategic method to seize the very best high quality brine property accessible within the Smackover,” Dr. Robinson mentioned.
“Primarily based on the profitable operation of our DLE plant, and our data of extracting lithium from the Smackover brines and producing battery-quality lithium merchandise, our useful resource crew and our Smackover Formation specialists have spent virtually 2 years figuring out key areas within the Smackover Formation that we consider are essentially the most potential for large-scale, high-quality lithium brine assets.”
Shares of Normal Lithium shot up 4% by 12:35 p.m. ET on the TSX Enterprise Trade. The lithium improvement firm has a market capitalization of roughly C$822.8 million.
