A Potentially Game-Changing Extraction Process
The company’s JV partner, GLET, has filed a FLASH provisional patent application as a placeholder to protect its IP while it continues pursuing a full patent on the technology.
The company announced that based on the successful bench-scale testing resulting in >99% Li, Al and Si extraction rates from spodumene concentrate, Medaro has completed an additional earn-in of the HLT via its now 60% ownership of GLET.
Low Cost, Carbon-Free, Cost Effective
Successful bench-scale testing and economic analyses by Medaro’s joint venture partner GLET indicate that the HLT is capable of lowering overall spodumene processing costs by 30 to 50%.
All of the unit operations in the HLT can be powered entirely by green electricity!
The chemical steps in the HLT are sulfur – chlorine – fluorine – sodium – potassium – calcium and hydrocarbon-free – and use only Earth-abundant materials.
The process uses <8 primary proven chemical reactions to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate and/or battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
With the exception of spodumene concentrate calcination at 1075-1100 °C to convert І-spodumene to ß-spodumene, all of the reactions in the Medaro SPT occur at temperatures <250 °C.
Internal recycling of the spodumene “solvent” and aluminum hydroxide precipitant dramatically reduces chemical processing costs.
The SPT creates only a trivial amount of environmentally benign solid waste material.
Sales of byproduct aluminum oxide, in particular, and to a lesser extent, silica, enhance profitability.
Closed-loop chemical recycling of the solvent, along with another key reagent, greatly lowers the overall cost of processing a І-spodumene concentrate.
Results of preliminary bench-scale laboratory tests of the process indicate that Li, Al and Si extraction and recovery levels close to 100% are both technically and economically feasible.
The HLT avoids the use of sulfuric acid in the leaching of І-spodumene.
Another major advantage of the GLET/Medaro process is that it intrinsically rejects iron from the processing circuit. This is advantageous in processing spodumene concentrates that contain high concentrations of iron.
HLT targets every Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance Metric (ESG)
Development of the method has already gone beyond the Process Flow Diagram (PFD) mark, and work has commenced to Piping and Instrumentation Design (P&ID).
With a finalized P&ID, and an accompanying equipment layout drawing, all of the necessary “blueprints” will be in place to build and operate a pilot plant.
Benefits
Deliver a Game Changing Technology to Compete with Lithium Production from Brines
Drive Profitable Hard Rock Lithium Extraction and Global Sector Growth
From Pegmatite to Spodumene Concentrate
Typical process is located as near to mine as possible. Concentrate is shipped onwards (sometimes huge distances) for advanced processing into commercial products
* Based on market price as of H2 2022
A Dual Closed Loop Thermochemical Technology
* Based on market price as of H2 2022
Customers will be able to situate Medaro-licensed processing facilities adjacent to their mines and ship battery grade lithium and valuable by-products directly to end-use markets.
The proposed process is designed for scalability with 50 to 100 tonnes per day (or more) readily envisioned for processing in remote locations across the pegmatite-rich regions of the world.
* Based on market price as of H2 2022
Lithium products are used in a wide variety of industries. Its obtained mainly from two sources: subsurface brines, and spodumene-bearing pegmatite deposits.
Lithium-bearing brines are pumped out of the ground and subsequently treated, first, to increase lithium concentration, and thereafter to form either lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide.
