Hey@In4apenny, thanks for a great post.Reading it over again, I...

Hey@In4apenny, thanks for a great post.

Reading it over again, I just wanted to clarify a point. I'm not sure if it is intentional, but it seems like your post is suggesting that LPD producing 4N material would classify as lithium metal, which is incorrect.

4N material in the context of LPD and L-Max would be 99.99% lithium carbonate, and the equivalent lithium hydroxide monohydrate would be approximately 57.06%.

It is important to distinguish, however, that these are not lithium metal, they are lithium salts. The % refers to the percentage of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide in the sample, not to the % of lithium.

100% pure lithium carbonate is actually only 18.8% lithium, while 100% pure lithium hydroxide monohydrate is only 16.5% lithium.

Lithium metal, meanwhile, is >99% lithium, as you have pointed out. It would take approximately 5.3 tonnes of lithium carbonate to make 1 tonne of lithium metal, and approximately 6 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate to make one tonne of lithium metal.

I think the industry is heading towards lithium metal one day, but it isn't anywhere near it yet, and LPD certainly isn't working in that realm.

4N material for LPD would still be highly valuable, and you have correctly pointed out that it would be classified as a different product. 4N lithium carbonate attracts a premium price and is used for the electrolyte in the batteries, rather than the cathodes. There is less tolerance of impurities in the electrolytes, possibly because of the dendrite issue that you have pointed out.

Cheers