Standard Lithium Successfully Produces >99.985% Purity Battery Quality Lithium Carbonate Using OEM Technology and Commences Lithium Hydroxide Conversion Program
HIGHLIGHTS
- >99.985% purity lithium carbonate produced using ‘off-the-shelf’ OEM technology
- Now successfully demonstrated two different flowsheets for producing battery-quality carbonate
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Launch of work converting Arkansas-produced LiCl into battery quality lithium hydroxide
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Standard Lithium Ltd. (“Standard Lithium” or the “Company”) (TSXV: SLL) (OTCQX: STLHF) (FRA: S5L), an innovative technology and lithium project development company today announced that it has successfully completed the conversion of its Arkansas-produced lithium chloride into 99.985% pure lithium carbonate using OEM technology. The work was completed by Veolia Water Technologies (Veolia) at their facility in Plainfield, Illinois, and demonstrates that the lithium chloride intermediate product produced by Standard Lithium’s industrial scale LiSTR Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) plant in Arkansas can be converted into better-than battery quality lithium carbonate using established OEM carbonation technology.
Dual Track Program for Lithium Carbonate Conversion
As part of a continuous process of derisking the Arkansas Lithium Project, Standard Lithium opted to evaluate two different processes to convert the LiCl solution made by the Arkansas DLE plant
into a battery-quality material. The first was using the Company’s own patent-pending SiFT technology as previously reported (see news release dated December 03rd 2020). The second, as reported here, was via conventional technology, widely used within the industry and performed by Veolia. Concentrated lithium chloride
solution produced by Standard Lithium was sent to Veolia and was then converted to lithium carbonate using a conventional flowsheet. This involves additional concentration; chemical
softening/purification; initial conversion to solid lithium carbonate; redissolution to a bicarbonate solution and final crystallisation, washing and drying of battery quality lithium carbonate.
The material produced was of exceptionally high purity, as shown in Table 1 below where the composition is compared to typical specifications for battery-grade lithium carbonate compiled from a
variety of commercial sources and producers’ specifications