LONDON (Alliance News) - Rare Earth Minerals PLC Wednesday said Western Lithium USA Corp, in which it holds a 3.1% interest, is continuing its optimisation studies with Tenova Bateman Technologies in order to complete an order-of-magnitude preliminary engineering study for Western Lithium's Nevada lithium deposit.
Tenova developed an advanced solvent extraction technology known as the LiSX process that is designed to efficiently separate and concentrate lithium from brines and chemical streams, and conducted testing of the process in 2010, producing saturated lithium brine concentrates of 99.9% purity at Western Lithium's Nevada deposit.
Western Lithium has been advancing its lithium hydroxide circuit and plans to test whether the LiSX lithium separation method is complementary to the company's lithium hydroxide and carbonate products. Utilising low energy requirements, the LiSX process has the potential to enable the production of various customised high-purity lithium end-products, Rare Earth Minerals said.
"Western Lithium's involvement with Bateman, in particular its plan to test the LiSX lithium separation method to extract lithium hydroxide is an important step in developing key product streams for battery applications," Rare Earth Minerals Chief Executive Kiran Morzaria said in a statement.
"As we see this market advance and grow we believe lithium hydroxide will increase in use and begin to take a larger market share in the battery market. REM has in both the Sonora Lithium Project and Western Lithium's Kings significant stakes in two very large strategically located lithium deposits and we continue to look for opportunities to make further value investments in this sector," he added.
Shares in Rare Earth Minerals were trading down 0.5% at 0.980 pence Wednesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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