How a new, more sustainable lithium mining process could boost the industry in Western Canada

A new and potentially more environmentally friendly method of mining lithium could make it easier to extract the vital mineral from deposits in western Canada, as companies move closer to demonstrating that the technology works at scale.

such a lithium is foundD in very salty water underground known as lithium brine Oned is not easily accessible with conventionsal methods. Now, a technology called direct lithium extraction (DLE) could allow companies to mine those resources at a potentially lower cost to the environment than other methods.

Alberta is particularly attractive to at least one such company because its long history of oil and gas extraction “has left behind an incredible amount of infrastructure that we’re trying to repurpose,” said Kevin Piepgrass, chief operating officer of LithiumBank, a mining company that is trying to develop lithium resources in the province.

It has licenses for two lithium projects in Alberta, about 200 to 300 kilometers northwest of Edmonton, and it is using wells that were built decades ago to extract oil and gas instead to access underground salt water that contains lithium – an essential component in batteries that are powering the clean energy transition.

“This is an incredible opportunity to produce lithium from an area where you have all these things you need,” said Peepgrass, citing Alberta’s favorable regulations and the availability of water and electricity for the mining sector.

Something similar has happened before in Alberta: its oil sands only became economically successful in the 1970s when prices rose and oil extraction technology improved.

DLE vs other methods

Currently, lithium comes from two main sources: conventional mining from rocks, used in Australia, which supplies one third of the world’s lithium, and extraction from lithium brines, mostly in South America, especially in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

In places such as Chile, lithium brine is pumped to the surface and left to dry for long periods of time until the lithium becomes highly concentrated.

Ngai Yin Yip, a professor of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia University, says this only works in dry environments where water can evaporate.

“You have all the solar energy for that evaporation, but there are many other places where you have this lithium brine but you don’t have such cheap land and you don’t have the right conditions for evaporation,” he said.

“We can only rely so much on South America for lithium production, which is why there’s really strong interest in new technologies that can produce lithium from different sources, including lithium brines,” he said.

This is where Canadian salt water comes in, where salt water cannot be left to dry out. But Yip researches DLE methods that reduce the need for solar evaporation by using chemicals to extract lithium directly.

Yip’s team just released a study They have demonstrated a new solvent that can extract lithium from salty water.

So far, it has only been demonstrated to work in the laboratory, which shows promise but also the challenge of using DLE technology on a large scale.

Pipgras, whose company is attempting a different DLE process, says choosing the right technology depends on where the brines are.

“There are a lot of details involved. And then, what type of product do they produce? Are they compatible with your downstream processing?” He said.

LithiumBank conducted pilot testing of its technology last year and said it was able to successfully extract battery-grade lithium. It is now working on more detailed feasibility studies and more trials to demonstrate the quality of the lithium that can be extracted.

At the moment, there are only two lithium mines in Canada, in Manitoba and Quebec, both of which extract it from hard rock.

Canada produces 6,000 tonnes of lithium per year, while Australia produces 88,000 tonnes of lithium per year.

Worldwide demand for lithium is certain increasing almost eight times from its current level to reach 1.3 million tonnes by 2040, according to estimates From the International Energy Agency. It is needed to store electricity in electric vehicle batteries and as part of larger electric grids that rely on renewable energy such as solar and wind.

What is its environmental impact?

According to assistant Ehsan Wahidi, DLE is better for the environment than other forms of extraction, but only if the process uses clean energy. Professor of Extractive Metallurgy at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Wahidi’s team is out A paper last year that compared The environmental costs of lithium extraction through three major methods – hard rock mining, evaporative extraction from brine, and DLE.

Wahidi’s team focused on the carbon emissions, land use and water use of different lithium extraction methods. They focused on the carbon emissions, land use and water use of different lithium extraction methods.

Emissions were highest in Australia, the largest lithium producer. This is because the mined material is shipped to China for processing, and emissions were driven by shipping as well as the energy used in China, which relies heavily on burning coal.

Lithium brine projects in South America had the lowest emissions because they rely on solar heat. In contrast, they use much more land – 350 to 600 square meters per tonne of lithium carbonate equivalent, whereas for DLE it is only 16 square metres.

The main environmental impact of DLE was energy emissions, says Wahidi. A lot of energy is used to pump out and process thousands of liters of salt water. Wahidi’s study suggested that those emissions could be reduced by using renewable energy such as solar power.

The electricity grid in Alberta is dependent on fossils – most energy comes from gas. But the province is also a major center for solar energy development.

“Everything about lithium is about tradeoffs. You’re losing something, you’re gaining something else,” Vahidi said.

And, he points out, DLE saves a lot of water – almost all of its water can be returned to the ground after lithium extraction.

“If you have a reliable and sustainable power generation system, DLE is one of the best ways to recover lithium from the ground,” he said.