Go2Lithium Inc. (G2L) stands at the cutting edge of the global lithium industry, dedicated to unlocking the full potential of lithium brine assets through innovative technologies and strategic collaborations.
Lithium, often referred to as ‘white gold,’ is the critical element that powers the batteries fuelling our modern world. However, the extraction of lithium has long been plagued by challenges related to environmental impact, inefficiency, and high costs.
At G2L, we bring extensive experience in guiding battery metals projects from initial flowsheet development to full commercial scale. Our commitment to excellence ensures that we deliver superior results at every stage of the lithium extraction process.
Through its cutting-edge cDLE® technology, G2L offers a promising alternative to conventional methods. This technology, rooted in continuous ion exchange processing, has the potential to recover lithium from brines more efficiently, cost-effectively, and with a smaller environmental footprint.
Game-changing lithium extraction technology
Traditional methods typically involve extracting lithium either from hard rock (spodumene) or from salars (salt flats). These methods are quite different in their approach. Hard rock extraction can be energy intensive, followed by salars, which also require significant energy and time.
In contrast, DLE dramatically reduces time, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and environmental footprint. It fundamentally changes how lithium extraction is perceived. With DLE, we’re no longer digging large holes or using vast evaporation ponds that waste water.
Instead, we simply extract lithium from a liquid by passing it through a sorbent, which captures the lithium, and then we can quickly restore the environment by putting the liquid back. Economically, DLE is also more advantageous. For example, the cost might be around $6,000 per tonne of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) with hard rock extraction, while DLE could bring that down to $3,000 to $4,000 per tonne.
While traditional lithium extraction methods, such as those used in salars, typically recover only about 40-60% of the lithium present in the brine, DLE can achieve recovery rates as high as 90% or more. This is because the process is designed to selectively capture lithium ions while leaving other minerals and impurities behind. This selectivity not only increases the recovery rate but also improves the purity of the final product, which is a significant advantage in producing high-quality lithium carbonate or hydroxide.
Our approach emphasises continuous operation and counter-current flow, where the sorbent moves in the opposite direction to the brine. This design maximises the efficiency of the sorbent, ensuring it fully loads with lithium and minimises the cost of the overall process.
cDLE® technology
Go2Lithium’s continuous counter-current processing technology, cDLE®, represents a significant advancement in lithium extraction. This innovative moving bed process efficiently transfers sorbents through sorption, washing, and desorption stages. Depending on the lithium concentration, total dissolved solids, and specific impurities in the brine, cDLE® can utilise either ion exchangers or adsorbents to optimise performance.
In brines with low lithium concentrations (less than 100 mg/L), ion exchange is the preferred method within the cDLE® process due to its higher loading capacity and reduced desorption volume requirements. This approach allows for faster and more efficient lithium capture than adsorption, upgrading lithium from 100 mg/L in the feed brine to over 3,000 mg/L in the DLE product.
Compared to traditional fixed-bed DLE processes like simulated moving beds (SMB carousels, ISEP, Septor, Puritech), cDLE® offers significant advantages. It handles more variable feed flows, lithium concentrations, and impurities, including suspended solids, while using lower-cost chemical reagents. This adaptability reduces pretreatment costs, making cDLE® a more viable and economical option.
Recent performance results from LithiumBank’s Boardwalk Project in Canada, where cDLE® was employed, underscore the technology’s exceptional capabilities:
- Lithium recovery: The cDLE® process achieved a lithium recovery rate exceeding 98% from the brine, the highest among the 15 technologies tested.
- Lithium purity: The lithium eluate (concentrated lithium solution) produced by cDLE® was of the highest purity, significantly reducing impurities such as calcium, sodium, and chlorine by more than 90%.
- Lithium concentration: The process increased the lithium concentration more than 40-fold, with the resulting eluate concentration surpassing 3,000 mg/L (3 g/L).
- Cost-effectiveness: The reagents used in cDLE® are approximately one-third the cost of those used in the previous direct lithium extraction process at Boardwalk, which accounted for 54% of the total operating costs in the initial project evaluation.
Calgary pilot plant
LithiumBank has recently launched its highly anticipated Calgary DLE pilot plant, achieving a major milestone in its journey to tap into Alberta’s abundant lithium resources. This state-of-the-art facility is expected to play a critical role in the company’s long-term strategy, with insights from the pilot plant guiding the next phase of its commercial development efforts. Instrumental to the project will be Go2Lithium’s cDLE® technology, which has been selected as the DLE process for LithiumBank’s flagship initiative.
Alberta, a province traditionally known for its oil and gas reserves, is now emerging as a key player in the lithium market. The region’s formation waters, typically a byproduct of oil and gas extraction, contain significant quantities of lithium. By employing Go2Lithium’s cDLE® technology, LithiumBank aims to extract lithium from these brines, which would otherwise be discarded.
The pilot plant is designed to process up to 10,000 litres of lithium-containing brine daily, making it one of the largest DLE pilot plants in North America. Brines from LithiumBank’s Boardwalk, Park Place, and Saskatchewan projects will be transported to the Calgary facility for processing.
Peter Voigt, CEO of Go2Lithium, expressed excitement about the partnership: “The cDLE® pilot plant employs advanced lithium extraction technology, which we expect will set new standards in sustainability and efficiency within the industry.
“The project represents a milestone in the partnership between Go2Lithium and LithiumBank, aimed at advancing lithium extraction processes. The cDLE® technology underscores our commitment to environmental responsibility, minimising ecological impact while maximising resource utilisation.”
LithiumBank’s pilot project is designed to achieve several key performance indicators, including lithium recovery rates, selectivity, flow rate, and concentrate quality. These metrics are crucial in determining the commercial viability and scalability of the company’s lithium extraction process. The pilot programme, which is expected to run for up to 18 months, represents an approximate 1:5,000 scale of future commercial production modules.
There are some exciting prospects on the horizon for G2L. Our goal is to prove our technology across a range of brine concentrations, from low-grade to high-grade, and partner with a few key players to bring this technology to market. Hopefully, by the end of 2024, G2L will have secured a couple of significant deals and made progress on additional pilot plants.
Please note, this article will also appear in the 20th edition of our quarterly publication.
