Melbourne-based metals recovery and water treatment solutions firm Clean TeQ Water (ASX:CNQ) will enter North America via a technology-for-equity agreement between Go2Lithium and LithiumBank Resources (TSX.V:LBNK).
Peter Voigt, CEO of Clean TeQ Water, says in coming months the company will be shipping to Canada in what will be one of the largest pilot-scale DLE plants in North America.
Go2Lithium is a 50:50 joint venture between Clean TeQ and Computational Geosciences, a subsidiary of NYSE-listed Ivanhoe Electric (NYSE:IE), to commercialise Clean TeQ’s continuous direct lithium extraction (cDLE) process.
Go2Lithium will become a strategic shareholder in LithiumBank through the issue, upon satisfaction of specific milestones, of up to 14 million shares which represents about a 25% shareholding of LithiumBank.
Under the licensing arrangement, Clean TeQ will gain exposure to some of North America’s largest brine assets. One is the Boardwalk Project (NI 43-101 PEA completed in June 2023) contains over 6 million tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent. The Park Place Project comprises a land package of over 1.6 million acres over the Leduc Formation, with a NI 43-101 Resource Estimate expected in 2H 2023.
The licensing agreement provides LithiumBank with access to Clean TeQ’s cDLE technology which, Clean TeQ says based on laboratory test results, is expected to significantly improve the economics of North American lithium brine projects.
The transaction represents the first of several potential transactions for Go2Lithium with developers of lithium brine assets
Clean TeQ reports that the transaction represents the first of several potential transactions for Go2Lithium with developers of lithium brine assets.
As part of the deal, Clean TeQ will also ship its cDLE pilot plant to Canada in coming months to accelerate piloting on LithiumBank brines.
The demonstration plant, which Clean TeQ expects to ship from Australia in coming months, will have brine feed capacity of up to 10,000 litres per day. Results from the piloting will provide key inputs into the Boardwalk mass balance and process design criteria, which will form the basis for a NI 43-101 Prefeasibility Study.
Both Clean TeQ and G2L report they are encouraged by the results from early testwork.
LithiumBank’s Executive Chairman, Paul Matysek says this licensing agreement with G2L provides LithiumBank with access to best-in-class direct lithium extraction technology that we expect to have a significant impact on the economics of its Alberta projects.
Voigt adds that the results from testwork on LithiumBank brines gives Clean TeQ confidence it can not only accelerate development of the Boardwalk and Park Place projects, but also position them as the most efficient and sustainable sources of lithium supply for the North American market.
LithiumBank is a publicly traded lithium company on 3 stock exchanges (TSX.V: LBNK; OTCQX: LBNKF; FRA: HY9) with a current market capitalisation of CAD$46.38 million Canadian dollars ($53.19 million).
The company holds one of the largest portfolios of lithium-bearing mineral claims across the Leduc Formation in western Canada. Located on leases which were previously developed for oil and gas extraction, over 1,000 wells have been drilled to date on LithiumBank’s claims within the Leduc Formation.
LithiumBank’s most advanced asset, the Boardwalk Project in Alberta, comprises a total land package of approximately 570,000 acres. LithiumBank’s NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Boardwalk Project estimates an indicated and inferred mineral resource at Boardwalk of over 6.2 million tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), grading at approximately 70g/L. This makes Boardwalk one of the largest lithium brine resources in North America.
Clean TeQ Water operates in sectors that include municipal wastewater, surface water, industrial wastewater, and mining wastewater. It has offices in Melbourne, Perth, Leeuwarden (Netherlands), Beijing, and Tianjin, and partners in Africa and Latin America.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Clean TeQ Water
