Firstly, we've heard of this approach / direct extraction tech before, many many times:
e.g. 2015:In 2010, Simbol Mining Corp. received $3 million from the DOE for a $9.6 million project that was to produce battery chemicals lithium, manganese, and zinc from California’s Salton Sea geothermal reservoir. The company, formed in 2008, licensed technology from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Simbol said, in a presentation for the DOE, that its business model “puts mineral extraction into a separate company, shielding the geothermal operator from risk and letting each company focus on its core competencies.”
Fomer president and CEO Dr. John Burba was previously technology director at FMC Lithium, where he pioneered selective extraction of lithium from saturated salt brines. (A Simbol representative told POWER on Feb. 5 that Burba was no longer with the company.) By 2013 the Pleasanton, Calif.–based company had demonstrated production of a high-purity lithium hydroxide through the electrolysis method, produced the world’s first battery-grade lithium carbonate from a geothermal brine, and achieved more than 9,000 hours of demonstration plant operation.
Simbol, which has garnered plenty of attention from cleantech promoters and media, says its proprietary process “eliminates traditional methods of invasive mining or evaporation ponds that require significant land, water, and energy use.” The process is said to produce “virtually zero waste, while consuming CO2, waste water, and other emissions from the geothermal power plant.”
Although the company does not provide details about its process, a January 2013 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report on lithium says that it involves utilizing “a unique reverse-osmosis process,” which “eliminates the need for solar evaporation, a crucial and lengthy procedure in common brine operations.” The USGS report pegged the plant’s initial lithium carbonate production capacity at 500 tons per year.
Commercialization of Simbol’s technology began with a demonstration facility in 2010 and was followed by the opening of what it says is the world’s highest purity lithium carbonate plant in September 2011. The company is currently preparing to break ground on its first commercial lithium plant. At full capacity, it is expected to produce “enough lithium for about 1.6 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles per year.”
Secondly, there's a thread called "New lithium related article" !
As with all these "new" techs, I'll believe it is a real option/threat when it is commercialised and producing viably, consistently, at scale.
Cheers
