Promising results from Canadian lithium extraction

E3 Lithium has managed to recover more than 90% of lithium from its Direct Lithium Extraction field pilot plant in Alberta, Canada.

The metals extraction company is conducting a series of three tests with its Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) plant to review different operating condictions in a near-commercial environment. Once the tests are run, the company will select the operating conditions that produce the best results.

The DLE ion-exchange technology uses a proprietary sorbent that is highly-selective towards lithium ions, thereby reducing large volumes of low-grade brine into a high-grade concentrate in one step as it simultaneously removes nearly all impurities.

The first three tests have recovered more than 94% with a purity of over 80%, while the average lithium grade in the concentrate is reported as being 884mg/L.

The company is testing its technology along with two other third-party technologies and say they will provide more results from the testing period against the KPIs they outlined in June.