E3 Metals technology improves concentration and recovery

ALBERTA - E3 Metals of Calgary continues to scale up its proprietary lithium extraction technology at the pilot plant. The results are excellent: lithium in brine was concentrated nearly 20 times to 1,498 mg/L with lithium recoveries greater than 99%.

E3 Metals is close to commercializing a low cost method of recovering lithium from the petro-brine resources in Alberta. (Image: E3 Metals Corp.)

The scale-up of lithium selective sorbent was successful, outperforming previous tests. The sorbent created in collaboration with the University of Alberta.

E3 says its extraction process is better than existing methods because it concentrates and purifies Alberta petro-brine feedstock in a single step. The highly concentrated feedstock can then be further purified and refined into battery grade lithium products.

The next step is to optimize the ion-exchange material and the construction of another pilot plant so that the sorbent material is commercially ready. A lab-scale ion-exchange test will be run using the optimized sorbent. Other goals are to produce lithium hydroxide with lab-scale equipment. The process flowsheet can then be finalized.

This story was first posted at Canadian Mining Journal