Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN) has used an innovative process to convert highly concentrated lithium chloride into liquid lithium hydroxide and chlorine.
This innovative production process has been designed by Anson’s technical advisor Tom Currin, from Southwest Technologies, and forms part of Anson's program to produce high-quality, low-impurity samples for testing by end-users and offtake partners.
Lithium hydroxide from brine is traditionally produced through an intermediate step of first producing lithium carbonate but Anson’s breakthrough technology is expected to lower the cost of doing this with the lithium carbonate step not required.
It is understood that Anson has been the first to achieve this result from a commercial brine.
“Important processing milestone”
Technical advisor Tom Currin said: “We are pleased to have assisted Anson in the achievement of this important processing milestone.
“The successful demonstration of the integrated process with Anson’s brine aligns the project with the multiple products and low production cost business models utilised by the major South American lithium producers.”
The chlorine that will be produced from this electrolysis process will be fed into the bromine extraction process, negating the need to purchase chlorine.
Some of the chlorine that is produced will be converted to hydrochloric acid (HCI) for use in both the bromine and lithium extraction processes, removing the need to purchase HCI and assisting to minimise production costs.
In line with the company’s multiple revenue stream strategy, the flowsheet designed by Southwest will produce six products - bromine, lithium hydroxide, lithium carbonate, chlorine, hydrogen gas and hydrochloric acid.
The latter three will be used in the production process thereby reducing costs which would otherwise be incurred.
This achievement represents another major step forward for Anson as it provides flexibility to respond to changing lithium market product preferences and increases the number of potential end-users.