Zak Mir talks to Ignacio Mehech, CEO of CleanTech Lithium (AIM: CTL), regarding the milestones achieved by the exploration and development company advancing sustainable lithium projects in Chile.

The company recently announced an update on two trials being undertaken in North America and in Santiago, Chile, to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate from the Laguna Verde project. The trials focus on replicating and validating the process design defined in the Laguna Verde Pre-Feasibility Study.

Highlights:

·    In North America, stage two of the downstream processing of eluate* (see footnote for definition) produced by our DLE pilot plant located in Chile, into battery grade lithium carbonate has commenced.

·    The first stage of this work was undertaken by Conductive Energy and reported to the market in January 2025.

·    Conductive Energy was acquired by Empower EIT over the course of 2025, with Empower establishing an advanced lithium processing facility in Dallas, USA.

·    This second stage of eluate conversion will process >60m3 of concentrated eluate at the new facility.

·    The nanofiltration stage of the process will utilise an advanced membrane developed by DuPont Water Solutions to maximise impurity removal and lithium recovery.

·    Approximately 300kg of battery grade lithium carbonate are expected to be produced in Q2 2026 and made available to potential strategic partners for product qualification.

·    Concurrently, a smaller scale pilot programme is underway utilising the pilot plant of Lanshen Technology ("Lanshen"), located in Santiago, Chile.

·    This pilot plant replicates the process flowsheet developed with Lanshen for the Laguna Verde PFS and aims to demonstrate the robustness of the process design and provide a high degree of validation of the process parameters used in the PFS.

·    A volume of 24m3 of feed brine from Laguna Verde is being processed into >5kg of battery grade lithium carbonate.

Ignacio Mehech, Chief Executive Officer, CleanTech Lithium said: "We are undertaking important pilot scale process trials in North America and Chile to produce battery grade lithium carbonate from Laguna Verde brine. This work will provide strong technical support for the process flow sheet used in our PFS which we think is an important consideration for engaging with potential strategic investors."

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