Published: June 11, 2020 |

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Standard Lithium Ltd. has completed the construction of its industrial-scale lithium carbonate crystallisation pilot plant and has now started the commissioning phase.

The crystallisation plant is designed to take the intermediate product made by the company’s LiSTR direct lithium extraction process (a high purity, concentrated lithium chloride solution) and convert it into a battery-quality (or better) lithium chemical as used by manufacturers in the lithium ion battery supply chain. The LiSTR plant recently started 24/7 operations at the project site in El Dorado, Arkansas.

The lithium carbonate crystallisation plant has been designed around the company’s proprietary ‘SiFT’ crystallisation technology, which was recently demonstrated to produce more than 99.9 percent purity battery-quality lithium carbonate. The crystallisation plant has been constructed by Saltworks Technologies Inc. at their facility in the Greater Vancouver area.

Initial commissioning of the SiFT plant has already begun, and so far, it has been hydraulically tested for integrity and all systems have been energised. Commissioning of the fully-automated control system is ongoing and is expected to be completed within 10 days. Following this, lithium chloride solutions previously produced by Standard Lithium will be used to continue the commissioning process and produce the first samples of lithium carbonate.

“Saltworks has done a fantastic job delivering this state-of-the-art lithium carbonate crystallisation plant, especially given the recent complications related to COVID-19. Our plan over the coming months has necessarily been adapted to fit the current trans-border situation between Canada and the USA,” said Dr. Andy Robinson, president and COO of Standard Lithium.

“As we are able to freely transport large volumes of lithium chloride product from our operational demo plant in Arkansas up to Vancouver, once commissioning is completed we will initially test and run the SiFT plant using this feedstock, thus demonstrating the total lithium extraction and crystallisation flowsheet that we have developed. Once trans-border movement of staff and equipment is relaxed, hopefully in the not too distant future, then we will transport the modules and integrate this SiFT Crystallisation Plant in to our 24/7 operations in Arkansas,” added Dr. Robinson.

About Standard Lithium Ltd.
Standard Lithium is a specialty chemical company focused on unlocking the value of existing large-scale US based lithium-brine resources. The company believes new lithium production can be brought on stream rapidly by minimizing project risks at selection stage (resource, political, geographic, regulatory & permitting), and by leveraging advances in lithium extraction technologies and processes. The company’s flagship project is located in southern Arkansas, where it is engaged in the testing and proving of the commercial viability of lithium extraction from over 150,000 acres of permitted brine operations. The company is currently installing a first-of-its-kind Demonstration Plant that will use the company’s proprietary technology to selectively extract lithium from LANXESS’ tailbrine. This Demonstration Plant will be used to prove commercial feasibility. The environmentally friendly process eliminates the use of evaporation ponds, reduces processing time from months to hours and greatly increases the effective recovery of lithium.

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