Frontier produces battery-quality lithium hydroxide in Ontario

Canadian junior Frontier Lithium (TSX-V: FL) (OTCQX: LITOF) has successfully produced battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate from the PAK deposit, part of the PAK lithium project in northwestern Ontario. 

The lithium salts were produced using a third-party’s process technology from a purified lithium hydroxide solution in the company’s mini-pilot plant, it said. 

“We continue to progress, de-risk and execute on our plan to build a fully-integrated lithium chemicals company to service the global battery and electric vehicle industry,” CEO Trevor Walker said in the statement. 

Frontier has two spodumene-bearing deposits at its PAK project, 175 kilometres north of Red Lake, near the Manitoba border.

Spodumene is a source of lithium, and the company aims to become a fully integrated producer of battery-quality lithium, a critical component in the batteries that power electric vehicles and high-tech devices. 

Lithium complex

The pilot, conducted in partnership with mining and commodities giant Glencore (LON: GLEN), received C$363,000 (about $300K) from the government of Ontario in May. 

The test work will support an ongoing prefeasibility study to assess the viability of a vertically integrated chemical company through operation of a spodumene mine and concentrator at PAK.   

It could end in a commercial-scale lithium chemical plant that would create 500 jobs during a two-year construction phase, and more than 250 once it is operational.  

The company released in February a preliminary economic assessment of its PAK open-pit project, forecasting a 26-year mine life with the potential to establish a hydrometallurgical chemical plant at an unidentified Great Lakes port. 

Frontier’s tentative start date to begin commercial-scale mining at PAK is 2025.