EQS-News

Vulcan Energy Resources Limited: Commissioning start at Lithium Extraction Optimisation Plant

EQS-News: Vulcan Energy Resources Limited / Key word(s): Miscellaneous Vulcan Energy Resources Limited: Commissioning start at Lithium Extraction Optimisation Plant 17.08.2023 / 10:01 CET/CEST The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Commissioning commences at Vulcan’s Lithium Extraction Optimisation Plant

Major milestone for Vulcan

Significant step forward for the EU battery critical raw materials supply chain

 

Vulcan Energy Resources Limited (Vulcan; ASX: VUL, FSE: VUL, the Company), the renewable energy producer and carbon neutral lithium developer, has commenced commissioning at its Lithium Extraction Optimisation Plant (LEOP). 

 

Highlights: 

• Vulcan has commenced commissioning of its Lithium Extraction Optimisation Plant (LEOP), for the purpose of extraction, purification, and concentration of lithium chloride from brine in the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany. This milestone represents a major step forward by Vulcan and its Zero Carbon Lithium Project. 
• This also represents significant progress towards enabling domestic European supply chain independence for lithium as a critical raw material and enabling a more sustainable EV battery production industry in Europe. 
• The commissioning phase for LEOP is expected to run until October, when first brine will be introduced into the plant for the lithium extraction process to begin. 
• Vulcan commenced building its LEOP in 2022, designed as an optimisation, operational training and product qualification facility to enable commercial operational readiness for the end of 2025.
• LEOP succeeds Vulcan’s pilot plant, which has successfully operated for 2.5 years, producing lithium chloride from Vulcan’s producing well sites.
• To extract lithium from brine, Vulcan is using Adsorption-type DLE (“A-DLE”), which has been a commercially proven technology in the lithium industry since the 1990s. A-DLE is also beneficial in terms of low operating costs, greater time efficiency and a lower carbon footprint than legacy industry methods of lithium production. 
• Vulcan will use its proprietary sorbent VULSORB as part of the lithium extraction process. During the piloting phases, VULSORB demonstrated higher performance and lower water consumption for lithium extraction compared with commercially available sorbents tested by the Company.
• Once the lithium chloride is produced, it will be transported to Vulcan’s downstream Central Lithium Electrolyser Optimisation Plant (CLEOP) in Frankfurt-Höchst where the lithium chloride will be converted into lithium hydroxide, which will be tested by Vulcan’s lithium offtake partners, Stellantis, Volkswagen, Renault, Umicore and LG Energy Solution. 
• Vulcan’s Phase One commercial operation is targeting 24,000 tonnes per annum of lithium hydroxide production, to supply its offtakers in Europe with carbon neutral, domestically sourced lithium.