Adrian Griffin, managing director of Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT), speaks to Proactive Investors about the integrated battery metal producer’s proprietary SiLeach® lithium processing technology.
Last week the company applied for two global patents relating to the production and recovery of lithium phosphate and lithium sulphate from lithium-bearing silicates.The enhancements will reduce capital and operating costs and improve product quality.
"For us it is the silver bullet because potentially it reduces capital costs and operating costs, so that's quite significant. It also helps us produce a lithium chemical with a much higher purity; we can take the lithium through to carbonate or hydroxide, or as the phosphate as the case may be. And that step - removing the lithium as a phosphate - is not only a step that takes the lithium out of solution at lower concentrations, but also helps us to purify that solution as we do that process," explains Griffin.