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E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL) has extended its partnership with Pure Lithium to advance the design of an anode and battery pilot plant in Alberta, as well as a preliminary economic assessment on a commercial lithium metal battery manufacturing facility.
A joint development agreement was signed on Tuesday, following up on a memorandum of understanding signed by the companies in June 2022 to test the production of lithium from E3’s brine sources. Since then, Pure Lithium has been able to produce lithium metal cells that have higher energy density than today’s lithium-ion batteries, and do not contain any nickel, cobalt or graphite.
Under the new agreement, the parties will work together over the next 12 months to complete a rigorous techno-economic model, continue the joint scale-up efforts, and design a lithium metal anode and battery pilot facility to be built near Calgary, using lithium from concentrate generated by E3.
Through this work, E3 and Pure Lithium will assess the technical and economic criteria of a commercial lithium metal battery facility that would be located next to the lithium production in Alberta.
Upon successful completion, they will evaluate the next steps, including the operation of the pilot, which is designed to produce 200 kg of lithium metal anodes used in lithium metal vanadium rechargeable batteries.
The collaboration would lead to advancement towards the world’s first vertically integrated lithium metal battery technology, the companies said.
The combined process, according to E3, eliminates the need to produce a lithium salt as an intermediary step and could provide a much more simplified process flow sheet.
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Pure Lithium has developed a groundbreaking method for producing battery-ready pure lithium metal electrodes from available salts. The proposed battery facility would combine its patented “brine to battery” technology with E3’s vast lithium brines and concentrate production.
E3 currently owns the Clearwater project located between Red Deer and Calgary, where it is testing a direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology to extract naturally occurring lithium from oilfield brines. It is expected to generate 20,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually over a 20-year life. Last year, the company opened its pilot testing facility, the first in the province, to test the DLE method using the Clearwater brines.
“Integrating the E3 DLE flow sheet with Pure Lithium’s electrodeposition technology shows significant promise to deliver low-cost, sustainable batteries that would be industry leading,” E3 Lithium CEO Chris Doornbos said in a news release.
“After two years of diligent work, E3 has continuously provided Pure Lithium with lithium concentrate, and we are excited to use this concentrate as we scale,” Pure Lithium founder and CEO Emilie Bodoin said.
“Producing our lithium metal anodes from concentrate dramatically reduces the cost of battery production and removing the need to prepare anodes for shipping will lead to increased performance in the battery,” she added.
Shares of E3 Lithium surged 10.1% to C$1.41 apiece by 11:30 a.m. ET on the announcement, giving the company a market capitalization of C$105.1 million ($77 million). The stock traded between C$0.92 and C$5.72 over the past 52 weeks.
