Lithium developer Vulcan Energy [ASX:VUL] has produced lithium hydroxide from its pilot plant in Germany.
VUL said the latest hydroxide sample produced graded 57.1% LiOH. Vulcan said this threshold exceeds the ‘best on the market battery grade specification of 56.5% LiOH required from offtake customers.’
VUL shares were up more than 12% in late Monday trade (24/10/2022). However, VUL shares are down 50% over the last 12 months:
Source: Tradingview.com
Vulcan’s ‘high grade, low impurity’ lithium
On Monday, aspiring lithium developer — stationed in Europe — announced the production of its ‘highest grade, lowest impurity’ lithium hydroxide to date from its demo plant in the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany.
‘The latest material produced graded 57.1% LiOH, easily exceeding the best-on-the-market battery grade specification of 56.5% LiOH required from offtake customers,’ stated VUL.
VUL further said that the ‘impurities were well below market specification minimums’.
Lithium was extracted by the sorption method and sent to a downstream electrolysis processing facility offsite.
This process involved extraction of the lithium chloride using sorbent and water before being sent offsite to undergo purification processes provided by a third-party contributor.
The lithium chloride was then put under electrolysis to produce a lithium hydroxide solution to then be crystallised, making it ready for battery-grade material — or ‘lithium hydroxide monohydrate’.
‘The embodied renewable heat within Vulcan’s brine enables it to use the commercially proven sorption method of lithium extraction, which produces a very high purity LiCl product, which in turn enables the use of Li electrolysis to directly produce very high grade, low impurity LiOH,’ the company explained.
Vulcan eyes commercial production
Vulcan thinks it has accumulated enough information for Phase 1 of the DFS scheduled for Q1 2023.
The recent Sorption Demonstration Plant results have the lithium producer angling for the rest of its operations team to begin training in the pre-commercial setting in time for commercial production in 2025.
Dr Francis Wedin, Vulcan’s CEO, stated:
‘As our DFS draws towards its conclusion, we are encouraged by these latest highest grades and lowest impurities recorded to date, from LiCl production from our pilot plant, with electrolysis conducted offsite. The embodied renewable heat within our brine means we are able to leverage sorption, a commercially proven process to extract lithium from brines that requires heat to work.
‘Sorption is highly selective, which means that we can produce a very pure LiCl eluate. This in turn means we are able to use lithium electrolysis, a method of producing lithium hydroxide directly which by its nature produces a very pure product, in excess of the purity required for use in Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries, with minimal reagent usage.
‘Works are continuing apace on our Demo Plant and DFS, and we are looking forward to sharing further updates with our stakeholders in the coming months, as we continue to execute towards our target of first commercial production from our Zero Carbon Lithium™ Project in 2025.’
Overlooked ASX lithium stocks
Lithium stocks have been the talk of the ASX in 2021, with eight of the top 10 best-performing stocks on the All Ords being in the lithium sector.
Even with the ongoing push, escalating prices, and government support, lithium stocks entered a correction this year.
The easy money has clearly been made.
So do any overlooked lithium stocks remain on the ASX?
According to our recent Money Morning research report, yes.
Discover three overlooked lithium stocks here.
Regards,
Kiryll Prakapenka,
For Money Morning
