Saltworks » Applications » Lithium Extraction and Refining

Lithium Extraction and Refining

Energy and Cost-Optimized Processing for Battery-Grade Lithium

Saltworks offers advanced, modular solutions to concentrate, refine and convert (CRC) lithium brines and spodumene leach solutions into battery-grade products.

Lithium Extraction & Refining

Today, most of the world’s battery-grade lithium is produced by:

Lithium brine ponds: concentrating and precipitating impurities from geological lithium brines via evaporation ponds. A highly concentrated lithium solution is subsequently refined and converted into lithium carbonate or hydroxide. These low-cost operations are ideal for the convergence of rich lithium brines and arid climates, such as South America’s ‘lithium triangle.’

Hard rock mines: mining, crushing, concentrating, and leaching spodumene ores, to produce an impure lithium sulfate or lithium carbonate solution, which is then converted to battery-grade lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide.

Saltworks supports both of the above extraction processes with advanced water recovery and lithium refining technology systems. Our modular lithium refining systems offer a future-proof plant on a fast track to high lithium yield, low installation costs, and reduced energy consumption.

Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) & Brine-to-Battery Refining

To access lithium brines in wet climates and improve lithium recovery, Direct lithium extraction (DLE) is gaining popularity. After prefiltration, DLE systems produce a dilute lithium chloride solution containing impurities that are post-processed.

Saltworks is DLE agnostic. We build around the customer’s preferred DLE, which may be internal, an external vendor, or provided by Saltworks’ open-source model. Saltworks is actively commercializing a second-generation DLE system and flow sheet that boost lithium chloride purity and lowers battery chemical production costs.

Our brine-to-battery solutions and delivery model is flexible, from singular unit operations to complete flowsheets.

The multitude of pathways and technologies available to process lithium brines can be complex. However, optimal flowsheets exist, and they tend to be standardized regardless of the lithium brine resource. The greatest differences result from pretreatment before DLE and how post-DLE impurities are managed.

We work with customers to deliver the most cost-effective and repeatable flow sheets, which may include:

Adsorption-based DLE to reject bulk impurities and slightly concentrate lithium contained in the raw brine, including potential consideration of Saltworks Generation-II DLE systems.
SelectNF provides bulk hardness rejection and water recovery when partnered with XtremRO.
BrineRefine removes troublesome ions such as silica, if present, but requires chemical addition. SelectNF preferred.
XtremeRO & FusionRO concentrate lithium chloride (LiCl) up to 50% higher than conventional RO.
Xtract performs a high-TDS ion exchange polish for hardness, metals, and boron.
LiRefine produces battery-grade lithium carbonate crystals in a modular, single-step lithium carbonation package.

Learn more about Saltworks’ complete lithium refining systems.

Refining Spodumene Assets

In the hard rock space, we apply our suite of saline concentration, refining, conversion, and crystallization technologies to produce high-purity lithium chemicals from post spodumene leach solutions:

BrineRefine removes silica and multivalent impurities.
SaltMaker ChilledCrys purges sodium sulfate from the system
SaltMaker MVR produces battery-grade lithium hydroxide while achieving ZLD for wastewater streams using fully automated, self-cleaning forced circulation.

See our spodumene process flow diagram and SaltMaker MVR lithium hydroxide spec sheet for more information.

Work With Lithium Experts

Lithium mining is water mining. Regardless of the source, lithium is processed into battery-grade chemicals by refining a saline solution, concentrating it, and crystalizing or precipitating a lithium salt.

Saltworks provides high-performance, compact modular packaged, and advanced automation lithium refining systems.

To learn more about Saltworks’ efficient refining of high-quality lithium, download our DLE brine-to-battery lithium brochure, and spodumene lithium spec sheet or check out our articles on DLE processing and hard rock processing.

Contact our experienced team to begin optimizing your lithium project today.