25th Feb 2015 08:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - Rare Earth Minerals PLC Wednesday said Western Lithium USA Corp, in which it holds a 3% stake, has produced the first high quality lithium carbonate from its demonstration plant in Germany.
Rare Earth said that Western Lithium has produced a "high quality" lithium carbonate, and said the company is expecting to produce several tonnes of lithium products in 2015 to verify equipment selection and to provide production run samples for potential off-take sales.
Lithium carbonate is widely used in the processing of metal oxides and for things such as batteries.
Although Western Lithium's demonstration plant is in Germany, the company's Kings Valley clay-based lithium project is in Nevada.
Rare Earth said permitting and engineering work for the project is planned to accelerate in 2015 based on current discussions with several strategic partners.
Western Lithium is finalising the design of the lithium hydroxide circuit which is needed for production, and will be testing the circuit in pilot tests during 2015. According to Western Lithium's website, the project is due to come into production in 2018 to 2019.
""The progress being made in circuit design of lithium hydroxide is also a key development. We view that lithium hydroxide could, in the coming years, represent a larger portion of the lithium market, particularly with the predicted uptake of electric vehicles," said Rare Earth Chairman David Lenigas.
Lenigas said Western Lithium's project shares "many similarities" to Rare Earth's Sonora lithium project in northern Mexico, and said Western Lithium has "proven they can produce a high grade lithium carbonate through its demonstration plant in Germany."
Rare Earth added that Western Lithium has already previously tested its high purity lithium product in battery tests with a leading lithium-ion battery laboratory in the the United States, which was successful.
Rare Earth shares were up 2.9% to 0.900 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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