A novel and unprecedented breakthrough confirming commercial lithium extraction at low concentrations was made by Volt Lithium (VLT.v VLTLF) with the success of its pilot project testing its proprietary DLE extraction technology, confirming 90% lithium recovery and commercial economics!
In a simulated commercial environment, the project proved VLT's ability to achieve 90% lithium recoveries at concentrations as low as 34 mg/L as well as 97% recoveries using 120 mg/L concentrations with operating costs under CAD$4,000 per tonne.
Significantly, the project proved VLT's DLE technology can maintain 90% lithium recoveries in concentrations as low as 34 mg/L while still maintaining commercial economics. This is an achievement yet to be reported by other producers.
Alex Wylie, President and CEO of VLT, commented:
“These results confirm that Volt's proprietary technology is a true game-changer. With this accomplishment, we are poised to lead the way in North America as the first commercial producer of lithium from oilfield brines, which we are targeting for the second half of next year.”
These results follow the release of an initial resource report indicating 4.3M tonnes of lithium resource with concentrations up to 121mg/L at VLT's Rainbow Lake Property and set the stage for VLT to prepare its PEA.
Rainbow Lake is a world-class land base with over 100 years of production potential and some of the highest concentrations of lithium seen in Alberta.
With this, VLT's potential has significantly increased potential and, to drive strong economic returns and robust cash flows, VLT will be focusing development on the areas containing the highest lithium concentrations.
VLT held a webinar with Energy Prospectus Group earlier today to highlight the significance of these results and what lies ahead:
As discussed in the webinar, VLT plans to issue the Rainbow Lake PEA over the summer with initial commercial production to follow in the second half of 2024.
VLT will be following a modular system with plans to go into stage 1 commercial production of 1,000 tonnes per year, receiving $30-40M in cash flow, initially, before scaling up to 20,000 tonnes per year.
VLT's proprietary, next-generation IES-300 DLE technology achieves significant levels of lithium extraction while reducing the amount of re-agent required to treat oilfield brine as it enters the extraction process, resulting in lower operating costs and enhancing the project's economics.
Plus, this technology enables easy expansion to other projects these results additionally confirm that VLT is able to open up any major oilfield in North America that has ~50mg/L lithium and produce commercially from it.
With a large amount of interest in offtakes from buyers, VLT is well-positioned for success and growth once in commercial production due to its technically-focused strategy targeting profitable commercial production of lithium from oilfield brine.
For more information, check out these resources:
Posted on behalf of Volt Lithium Corp.