my understanding is that they went with the dual feed because...

First 13 Last

Share
Profile

Follow
chartrader

1,655 Posts.

393

20/06/21

22:54

Post #: 53955165
Share

Originally posted by maachine: ↑

Hi Strat,(just for the record I’m no brains trust) but happy to share my understandingie Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology applies strictly to removinglithium compounds from the geothermal ‘brine’ waters = lithium carbonate.

ZEO on theother hand is targeting a cleantech solution, that revolves around theproduction of lithium hydroxide, produced from spodumene concentrate that isderived from hard rock spodumene and, where Australia has one of the world’slargest resources ie presently there are some large-scale lithium hydroxiderefineries under construction in WA, although the world’s largest producer isin China ie Ganfeng Lithium, who only in the past week or so, tabled aninvestment circa $250 million for a 50 per cent stake in a hard-rock lithiumproject controlled by a ASX listed Firefinch (m/c was less than $15 million 12months ago). So I think its safe to say, the production of lithium hydroxide ison the up and in its production (at the refinery level) out of 7 tonnes ofconcentrated spodumene feed going in, 6 tonnes go to process tailings wastestream, so there looks to be heaps of Li process waste feed coming ‘globally’which one would think, is looking for a management solution and the sector isrelatively new, so I imagine not a lot of solutions uncovered yet either.

So DLEprocess can’t be a threat, as in my reading although DLE is touted as the mostenvironmentally friendly way to extract lithium from brines – many will firmlysay that brine production of lithium carbonate is much less environmentally friendlythan going the hard-rock spodumene route to lithium hydroxide (Ganfenginvestment in Firefinch, IMO is an indicator in which form lithium ispreferred, moving forward)

As foryour comment will there be enough demand for Li – that’s a much bigger questionand in my humble view, will primarily be driven by the uptake in EV’s to thedemise of ICE’s , several global auto makers have already slated production ofEV only vehicles in the near future, so pretty sure that Li demand is notdropping off and both Li carbonate and Li hydroxide prices have moved stronglyhigher over the pass 12 mths (EV’s are the only consumer of battery gradelithium, the solar industry is also a player)

Simply,DLE is not threat to ZEO’s technology when applied to the downstream managementof Li process residue (waste) produced by lithium hydroxide refineries – ZEOjust needs to prove up the tech works economically, so I suppose that’s whythey’ve gone with dual-feed pilot program.

Expand

my understanding is that they went with the dual feed because they needed to go it alone on the pilot program.
Big miners out there need, and want a method to deal with all their environmentally unfriendly waste, and ZEO's technology will be gobbled up by them in any deal where control is lost.
Like 'big' anything....they will shaft ZEO if at all possible, so by proving it up themselves, ZEO will put itself in a good negotiating position I'd say.

If this PP works on the larger scale.....you watch the pressure on the Lithium industry and their ESG protocols to use this technology.
And they will all get worried if a rival gets first user advantage.

ZEO Price at posting: 7.4¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
4 Upvote

0 Great analysis

Reply