International Battery Metals leases lithium filtration plant for production in the US By Reuters

By Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) – International Battery Metals said on Thursday it has leased its portable direct lithium extraction (DLE) plant to a customer that aims to begin producing the metal needed for electric vehicle batteries within the United States within six months.

The move would make IBAT the first company to commercially produce lithium with DLE technology, a major step forward amid ongoing efforts to revolutionize the way the ultralight metal is processed for the transition to clean energy. Lithium is typically produced in large, water-intensive evaporation ponds or in open pit mines.

While DLE technologies vary, they are comparable to common home water softeners and aim to extract about 90% or more of the lithium from brines, compared to about 50% using ponds. No DLE technology has yet reached commercial production without the use of those ponds, creating competition to be first.

The once niche DLE sector gained global attention last year, when Chilean President Gabriel Boric outlined a radical plan to phase out evaporation ponds and deploy DLE across his country's vast lithium reserves.

Albermarle (NYSE:), Exxon Mobile (NYSE:), General Motors (NYSE:), Rio Tinto (NYSE:) and others have made their own DLE bets, although none have launched yet.

Founded by John Burba, who helped invent an early version of DLE in the 1970s, IBAT's DLE facility is designed to be portable after filtering lithium using an adsorption material from a brine formation, thereby saving construction costs .

The IBAT plant is less than three acres (1.2 hectares) in size, compared to the hundreds of acres needed for evaporation ponds or open pit mines.

IBAT declined to reveal who leased its DLE plant, but said its client is a “major producer of metals and minerals,” including lithium, in the western United States.

The company plans to ship its DLE plant in the near future and begin commissioning it at its customer's facilities.

The plant is expected to produce 4,000 metric tons of lithium initially when it comes online in six months and will eventually grow to 8,000 metric tons, more than any existing lithium project in the U.S., IBAT said.

IBAT said it will receive royalties on the lithium produced by its DLE facility and that its client has the right to purchase it eventually, but will retain all technological rights.

The facility will be able to recycle more than 98% of the water it uses, the company said. Burba has repeatedly pointed to the lithium industry's high water use as a structural impediment to full commercialization.

“We are very excited about this opportunity to achieve full commercialization,” he said in a statement.