Lithium Americas Corp (LAAC)

[overlordpeter]

Lithium Extraction Techniques - A Look At The Latest Technologies And The Companies Involved

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3988497-lithium-extraction-techniques-look-latest-technologies-companies-involved

Summary

Disruptive new lithium extraction technologies use leaching, solvent extraction, geothermal extraction, and electrolysis.

Leading companies include Lithium Australia, POSCO, Simbol, Tenova Bateman, ERAMET, Neometals and Nemaska Lithium.

New lithium extraction technologies can have large implications for the lithium mining industry.

When I talk about the lithium miners with industry experts and industry insiders, the most interesting and yet unknown area, involves that of the disruptive lithium extraction technologies.

In response to several Seeking Alpha commentators requests, I take a look at the latest lithium extraction techniques and try to draw some conclusions. My purpose is to summarize the main options, and then to let investors and other experts give their input to reach the best conclusions, recognizing my limitations of not being a chemical engineer or expert in this area.

History of lithium processing summarized

Lithium is processed from:

Brine - Using evaporation (18 months), then leaching. Costs are about USD 2,000/tonne of LCE. Slow process time, low (40-50%) lithium extraction rate, high start up costs.

Spodumene - Using crushing, roasting, leaching. Costs about USD 4,500/tonne of LCE, plus extra costs of around USD 3,000 to convert to higher battery grade lithium. Quick process time, lower start up costs.

Clay - Not yet proven to be cost viable, and not yet done commercially.

Put simply, extracting lithium from brine is cheap but slow, from spodumene is expensive but fast, and from clay is not yet commercially proven at scale.

It is the cost of "crushing and roasting" that renders the cost of lithium from spodumene uncompetitive compared to the production of lithium chemicals from brines. Despite spodumenes costing more to produce they still make up around 50% of the lithium market as lithium demand is currently so strong (and some low iron spodumene is used in ceramics and glass). Additionally, one also needs to consider that lithium concentrate is considerably higher in pegmatites (spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) is found in pegmatites) at around 8%, than in brines, helping pegmatite deposits to be economically viable and able to compete with brine deposits.