Reality Check: DLE Technology Has Been Around For 50 Years And Profitability Remains Elusive
SLI is hardly the first player in lithium to stumble upon DLE. As early as the 1970s, top industrial companies like DOW werefiling patentsaround direct-lithium-extraction. Although DLE never reached commercial scale in the 1970s, that hasn’t stopped dozens of well-capitalized companies from attempting to figure it out in recent years.
As one example, Albemarle, is a $27B market-caplithium powerhouseand one of thelargest lithium producersin the world. Back in 2011, Albemarle announced it wouldproduce lithium via a DLEprocess in Arkansas – close to Standard Lithium´s current pilot plant — and aimed to be in commercial production by 2013.[1]
But Albemarle shelved that project andhas struggledto make DLE economical, with lithium division President Eric Norris saying in August 2021:
U.S.-headquartered Livent, a major globallithium producer, claims it is the “only lithium producer in the world with a successful, multi-decade track record of using a DLE technology process on a commercial scale.” It purchased Dow DLE patents in the 1990s and is uses DLE at its high lithium content deposits in Argentina; not in much lower-content deposits in the U.S. [Pg. 21]
Others have found success elusive, and not for lack of trying. JadeCove Partners, consultants to the U.S. government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), says it is tracking73 DLE projectsunder development globally, including in the U.S.
Dr. John Burba worked with Dow and FMC on the development of DLE since the 1980s. And with more than70 patentsto his name, he´s sometimes dubbed the “godfather of lithium”. In apresentationfor his DLE start-up International Battery Metals, Burba writes:
Ed Andersen, President of Tru Group, an engineering consultancy withexpertise in lithium extraction, estimates there are currently over 150 lithium brine projects in the U.S., but he saysmost are doomed to failure:
As recently as December 2021,he said:
Although many have failed before, Standard Lithium has led the market to believe it will be the company to figure out profitable DLE.
CEO Robert Mintak claimed onCNBCthat Standard Lithium has the “technology to unlock” the “globally significant” lithium brine resource in Arkansas.
https://hindenburgresearch.com/standard-lithium/
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