interesting. my old old company is making battery-grade lithium from waste rock. almost none right now, but maybe scalable.
Posted by
mafic
Apr 8 '21, 18:35
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little subscription-only article:
Rio Tinto Group started producing battery-grade lithium from waste rock at a lithium demonstration plant at its Boron borates operation in California, the company said April 7.
The plant can produce 10 tonnes of lithium per year and will run throughout 2021 to assess the feasibility of increasing production to an initial capacity of at least 5,000 t/y, enough to make batteries for about 70,000 electric vehicles, according to the mining major.
An initial small-scale trial in 2019 confirmed that the process of roasting and leaching waste rock can recover high grades of lithium, and the company partnered with the U.S. Energy Department's Critical Materials Institute in producing battery-grade lithium at Boron.
Rio Tinto noted that its lithium pipeline also includes the Jadar lithium-borates project in Serbia, where a feasibility study expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
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