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Lithium is absolutely essential to "the electric vehicle revolution". Like it or not, the EV paradigm shift is coming.
The problem is not finding lithium. It's all over the world. Nor is the problem not the extraction of lithium. The problem is getting it out of everything else that keeps manufacturers from getting to the good stuff. I have found a Canadian company that may be able to provide some help in this department.
It's called Standard Lithium (OTC 🙂 (TSXV :). This company takes a slightly different approach than hammering hard rock or patiently extracting from brine over a period of weeks or months.
Indeed, Standard is not a miner at all. Their approach is to partner with companies that are already producing what, for those companies, would be their primary source of income, be it or whatever. These are usually very large companies that may only be one degree higher than willing to go through the trouble of setting up lithium processing. What makes them valuable partners to Standard Lithium is that their mines are already fully licensed and they have already developed the infrastructure to do their heavy mining.
What may just be a distraction for them could be a bonanza for a smaller company willing to partner with them (read: pay them for the privilege of sorting their snails / trash / trash) and thus an additional source of lithium for the world – without buying or leasing land, getting permits, greasing palms in some countries, leasing equipment, hiring lots of personnel, etc.
Standard Lithium has passed the hypothesis and laboratory testing phase. They now have a pilot program and are working with a German company in southwest Arkansas. The German company is the 158-year-old giant chemical company Lanxess (OTC :), headquartered in Cologne (Cologne), Germany. The company produces lubricants and other additives, flame retardants, bromine and bromine derivatives for various applications in the rubber, plastics and paint industries, water treatment membranes, plastics, glass fibers, fiber composites and more – but not lithium.
Laxness has enabled STLHF to set up its pilot by operating on approximately 150,000 acres of brine contracts in this area. If it succeeds, there are all kinds of other properties owned by other major chemical and mining companies, where Standard Lithium can simply pick up its equipment and ship raw lithium chloride to its already operational conversion plant in Richmond, British Columbia.
With new rented or owned equipment, it could even scale up to where the company could extract lithium from some of the hundreds of brine ponds that exist today – just as we'll likely need more of that stuff .
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Standard Lithium said in the 4th quarter of 2020 that 20,000 liters of lithium chloride had already been shipped and that the conversion to lithium carbonate had been successfully completed using a conventional batch process and the company's proprietary SiFT process. It calls this first step in the innovative chain the Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Demonstration Plant.
The demonstration plant uses the company's proprietary "LiSTR" technology, which is designed to continuously process a 50 gallon per minute input brine stream from the Lanxess South Plant. When converted into lithium carbonate, this would equate to an annual production of between 100 and 150 tons of lithium carbonate per year.
In addition, STLHF's industrial-scale lithium carbonate crystallization pilot plant has been operating successfully for several months with a lithium chloride solution produced last year by the company's mini-pilot DLE plant in Arkansas. According to the company:
“The SiFT plant has made high purity lithium carbonate crystals from this lithium chloride and is now ready to receive the large volume of product from Standard Lithium's continuously operating plant in Arkansas for final conversion to battery grade lithium carbonate. . "
As Dr. Andy Robinson, President and COO of Standard Lithium commented, “We have successfully operated our first of its kind industrial DLE plant in Arkansas and we have been continuously making lithium chloride products for months … This is a very exciting time for us as we are nearing the point on which we can demonstrate the continuous extraction of lithium from Smackover brine and its conversion into battery grade material. "
If successful, STLHF's scalable, eco-friendly process will eliminate the use of evaporation ponds such as those in Chile and Argentina, which, according to the company's statements, " will reduce processing time from months to hours and the effective recovery of lithium. . "[Emphasis mine.]
STLHF is also actively pursuing resource development of approximately 45,000 acres of mineral leases in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, and is always looking for other potential locations.
The purchase of Standard Lithium stock continues my investment theme of seeking innovative ways to play the transition to electric vehicles and energy storage through batteries of all sizes.
TWO Disclosures: (1) I consider purchasing smaller companies like this speculative in nature / do your due diligence! (2) Unless you are a Stanford Wealth Management customer, I do not know your personal financial situation. Therefore, I am offering my opinion above for your due diligence and not as advice to buy or sell specific securities.
