Standard Lithium Commissions Saltworks for Design & Build of Selective Crystallisation Portion of Its Pilot Plant

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Standard Lithium Ltd. ("Standard Lithium" or the "Company") (TSXV:SLL) (FRA:S5L) is pleased to announce that it has commissioned Saltworks Technologies Inc. ("Saltworks") to design and build a novel, selective crystallisation plant to make battery-grade lithium carbonate in a continuous process.  The feedstock to the crystallisation plant will be the high-purity lithium solution produced by the full-scale Selective Extraction Pilot Plant previously announced by the Company on 26^th March 2018.  The crystallisation plant will be intelligently automated and will utilise machine-learning to optimise the crystallisation conditions.  The selective crystallisation plant will be designed, built and tested in Vancouver, BC, and will then be deployed at the Company's Pilot Plant location in El Dorado, Arkansas.  This novel, continuous selective crystallisation plant is based on work conducted by Professor Jason Hein, a member of Standard Lithium's Technical Advisory Committee, that has been demonstrated at bench scale to result in reproducible and high purity lithium carbonate crystallisation.

Dr. Andy Robinson, COO and President of Standard Lithium commented "We're extremely pleased to announce this agreement with Saltworks; we've been very impressed with the quality and technical sophistication of their team and the products that they design and manufacture.  Standard Lithium is taking a parallel and risk-managed approach at our Pilot-scale facility with respect to our final crystallisation stage; our intention is to 'future proof' our final production options.  In addition to our in-house technology testing, we will be sending high-purity lithium solutions to OEMs in order that they can use traditional, proven technologies to demonstrate production of lithium carbonate and hydroxide; however, we also wish to test whether modern approaches can provide a more efficient solution to making very high purity lithium carbonate."

Saltworks CEO Benjamin Sparrow commented that, "Lithium mining is water mining.  Our team is very excited to provide Standard Lithium with an advanced water technology edge, leveraging our experience while working with their world class team."

About Standard Lithium

Standard's value creation strategy encompasses acquiring a diverse and highly prospective portfolio of large-scale brownfield domestic brine resources, led by an innovative and results-oriented management team with a strong focus on technical skills and modern brine processing technologies.  The Company's flagship project is in southern Arkansas, where it is engaged in the testing and proving of commercial viability of lithium extraction from 150,000+ acres of permitted brine operations and also the resource development of 30,000+ acres of separate brine leases, both located in the Smackover Formation.  It is also engaged in the exploration and resource development of approximately 45,000 acres at the Bristol and Cadiz Dry Lake Lithium Projects located in the Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California.  All of Standard Lithium's Project areas have significant infrastructure in-place, with easy road and rail access, abundant electricity and water sources, and already permitted brine extraction and processing operations.