Lilac Solutions has completed construction for lithium developer Lake Resources’ lithium processing demonstration plant at its Kachi project site in Argentina’s Catamarca Province.
Lake Industry’s flagship Kachi Project is located in Argentina’s Catamarca Province at the southern end of the Lithium Triangle, a world-renowned province responsible for 40 per cent of global lithium production.
Completion of construction for the demonstration plant and the wet and dry commissioning process took place during September and October.
The demonstration plant is now processing Kachi brines with final optimisation of the process now nearing completion.
Lilac Solutions Executive Vice President, Bart Packer, said he had been on site at Kachi to oversee the final adjustments to the plant to ensure optimisation of processes prior to continual processing getting underway.
“Initial operations of the demo plant have already delivered product at spec, with the demonstration plant achieving similar lithium recoveries that were achieved in the Oakland pilot plant test work in California,” Mr Packer said.
“Optimisation work continues on site; Lilac anticipates the first samples of Lithium Chloride will be shipped for conversion to Lithium Carbonate within two weeks.”
Lake proposes that this final lithium product will then be qualified by a tier one battery maker to validate product specifications.
Lilac Solutions’ CEO, David Snydacker, said these excellent early results validate Lilac’s ability to quickly scale up lithium production at the Kachi site.
“Just one month after the start of wet commissioning, we are already achieving 80 per cent lithium recoveries even as we complete the commissioning process and increase recoveries,” Mr Snydacker said.
“Cheers to our field operations team, which has been working 24/7 to achieve these results in partnership with Lake Resource’s fantastic team at Kachi.
“We are excited to expand our collaboration with the Lake team as we work to fast-track commercial-scale production of lithium carbonate.”
Lake Resources’ CEO, David Dickson, said the company was delighted to see initial test results achieving anticipated specifications.
“This validates the many years of test work that took place in Lilac’s Oakland facility during Covid whilst access to site was impossible.
“We look forward to seeing the test work move into steady state and then for the process to be validated by Hatch so that work on the DFS can be completed.”
Mr Dickson said every resource project in the construction phase globally had faced inevitable challenges in recent times, and he had been pleased to see the Lake and Lilac teams in Argentina working together closely to overcome early construction challenges and to now deliver excellent results from the initial work completed on Kachi brines.
Lake Resources’ Executive Chairman, Stu Crow, said Lilac’s method of producing high purity lithium would disrupt the battery materials supply industry as it was scalable, low cost, and delivers a consistent product quality with a significant Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) benefit.
“The news of successful demonstration plant results is timely as Lake Resources’ full board is in Sydney to attend the IMARC conference this week to meet and host a strong delegation of representatives from Argentinian Federal and Provincial Governments and Departments,” Mr Crow said.
As noted in its September Quarterly Report, Lake Resources intends to make several new executive and board appointments before year end as it transitions from an exploration company toward development and production.
