General Comments & Banter, page-9810

Reagents are chemicals added during the process.

They react with the feedstcok (liquid that comes out of the ponds) as part of the process.

Each one has a purpose which might be for example...

1. Cause precipitation (drop a particular molecule or element out of solution to form a scum or solid so that it can be skimmed or separated)
2. Cause flocculation (make fine particles clump together so they drop to the bottom of a vessel so the remaining liquid can be drawn off leaving the floc behind) or run through fine filters that trap the floc.
3. Change an unwanted molecule or element into a different chemical more easily processed.
4. etc,

Thing is, significant quantities of reagents are required during Lithium processes (tonnes of the stuff) so their cost becomes significant.

Some brines contain large quantities of unwanted elements or molecules (particularly magnesium) that can be costly to remove (need a lot of reagent and/or processes) that adds to the cost.

AGY's brine at Rincon is high in magnesium, which was (in the early days) thought to be a potential problem. Judging by the OPEX cost reported in the PEA, it has now been confirmed that he has found a low cost method to remove it.His methods are secret and hence not disclosed in the PEA.

IMO

DYOR