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The head of a Canadian-listed company that’s developed a new system for extracting lithium, a critical mineral for electrification of the global economy, says it has proven it can tap smaller concentrations of the substance with minimal environmental disturbance.
International Battery Metals Ltd. said on Tuesday an independent engineering review has concluded the company’s modular, mobile lithium extraction plant obtains more than 65 per cent of the lithium from brine, which is saline groundwater enriched with dissolved lithium. It also recycles and reuses 94 per cent of the water in the process, according to a report by SLR Consulting Ltd.
British-based SLR conducted its review at International Battery Metals’ commercial-scale modular plant in Lake Charles, La., which has been flow-testing lithium-bearing brine since May. A big benefit of the technology, the company says, is its portability in a world where demand for the mineral is skyrocketing.
The technology was developed by company chairman and chief executive officer John Burba, a Texan who has worked on extraction projects in North and South America and patented numerous lithium-related technologies over four decades.
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