(Kitco News) - Long lead times is just one of the problems with solar evaporation technology, said Steven R. Izatt, president and CEO of IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc.
In September Izatt spoke to Kitco. Demand for lithium is growing due to electric vehicle adoption.
"We find ourselves in a situation where the demand for lithium is skyrocketing. It's on an asymptotic curve," said Izatt, who faults evaporation ponds, a lithium processing technique, as a bottleneck.
"Essentially, we're dealing with what I would characterize as old techniques. You have an 18–24-month delay from the time you take [the lithium] out of a salar. What you get out of the salar are 40-50% recovery rates, and you use a lot of water.
"We need to get things done more efficiently, and we need to get them to the market in the best way possible."
Utah-based IBC is building a pilot plant for direct extraction of lithium from brine at the Maricunga salt flat in Chile. IBC is deploying its own technology, molecular recognition, to extract lithium from the brine. The plant is being built for Chilean Grupo Errázuriz.
