AN Australian firm backed by Rio Tinto is raising funds to develop lithium mining technology that will reduce reliance on Chinese supply.
The Financial Times said ElectraLith, spun off from Melbourne’s Monash University, has produced battery-grade lithium hydroxide from a variety of raw lithium types. The company now intends to raise $15m to build its first facility for further development and commercialisation of the technology, the newspaper said.
Direct lithium extraction technology, which could transform the sector by substantially reducing the cost of lithium mining and opening up previously unviable deposits, said the newspaper.
Refining lithium into hydroxide could have significant benefits for countries such as the US and Australia, which have moved to develop critical minerals policies aimed at reducing their dependence on China.
“The onshoring of the refining process could have a significant impact for the US,” said Charlie McGill, CEO of ElectraLith. “We can take brines directly to Tesla and the US government with no China involvement.”
ElectraLith’s testing showed it was able to refine lithium without water or chemicals, which sets it apart from traditional evaporation methods that use huge amounts of water and from other DLE processes, said the Financial Times.
McGill said the proof of concept showed it was able to produce hydroxide from very low-quality brine sourced from Utah.
Travis Baroni, chief adviser at Rio Tinto’s battery minerals unit who sits on ElectraLith’s board, said the technology showed “real potential to significantly reduce the economic and environmental costs of lithium production”.
