Lithium Related Media Articles, page-7860

Brad ThompsonReporter

Updated Jul 2, 2021 – 5.21pm,first published at 3.46pm

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Australia’s emerging lithium hydroxide producers don’t just want people to drive electric cars, they want them to drive on roads made from the waste left behind during processing.

A big headache for the trio of emerging lithium hydroxide processors in Western Australia is what to do with the huge volumes of tailings left behind.

Australia’s lithium hydroxide producers are looking at ways to repurpose the huge volumes of waste left behind in making the key battery material.

They are now working together on plans to reuse what could be well over 1 million tonnes-a-year of benign chemical waste material produced in meeting growing global demand for the key battery ingredient.

Wesfarmers chief executive of chemicals, energy and fertilisers Ian Hansen said the producers believed a material known as delithiated beta spodumene could be repurposed instead of dumped.

“We are working with our fellow lithium hydroxide producers, and various other organisations, because we believe that this material can be used in roads and building products,” he said.