Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN) has received approval for a Special Use Lease (Long Canyon lease) with the State of Utah, School and Institutional Trust Land Administration (SITLA).
This is the location Anson is proposing for the first stage of its planned industrial-scale modular plant to first extract bromine before further processing the brine through a pilot plant to produce lithium.
The term of the Long Canyon lease is 30 years and covers a total area of 13.83 acres.
The lease includes a provision for the exclusive right to use a water disposal well within its boundaries, the Utah State 16-1 well that was previously drilled for oil and gas.
It has been agreed by SITLA that this well can be used to dispose of waste water from the processing plant. Brine will be piped from the Long Canyon No. 2 well to the lease area for processing.
Lease includes a corridor for a pipeline
The lease enables the construction, operation, and maintenance of a building to house equipment for the processing of brine for the extraction of minerals, as well as a pipeline to transport brine from extraction sites, power generation, water storage tanks, and a disposal well.
The lease is about 700 metres south-west of the Long Canyon No 2 well from which Anson sampled the bromine and lithium rich brine in Q2 of 2019.
This well is intended to feed the proposed on-site plant. The lease also includes a corridor for a pipeline to the proposed location of the plant and to a historical oil well Utah State 16-1, which Anson intends to use as a disposal well.
Multiple mineral/multiple revenue strategy
Anson has a multiple mineral/multiple revenue stream strategy. Apart from lithium, test work has been conducted for a number of minerals that were identified as having high concentrations in the brine from Paradox Brine Project including bromine and iodine which achieved recovery rates of 90% and 70% respectively.
Anson has initially focused on the examining technologies and process for the extraction of lithium and successfully produced lithium chemicals from both laboratory bench scale equipment and pilot plant scale equipment.
These lithium chemicals were produced following the pre-treatment of brine with chemicals.
The extraction of bromine and iodine was included in the conceptual commercial flowsheet as it was understood from Anson’s test work that bromine and iodine extraction process would produce the brine feed that was needed for the lithium extraction process replacing these chemicals and reducing pre-treatment costs.
Simplified commercial plant conceptual flow sheet
It was also identified that as bromine processing was well understood, an onsite bromine pilot plant was not required reducing project costs and development timeline.
In addition, the product produced could be sold to generate earlier cash flow and assist with project development financing.
Consistent with Anson’s multiple mineral/multiple revenue strategy and fast-tracking to production to generate early cash flow, it was determined that the focus of the next stage of development of the project will be on the extraction of bromine.
The extraction of other minerals is also under consideration.