Lithium Universe (ASX:LU7) announced that its senior executive team has now completed a detailed site visit at the company’s proposed second lithium refinery location in the Port of Brownsville, Texas, marking a key step in advancing the company’s lithium refining platform across Canada and the US.
Lithium Universe is positioning as one of few companies able to deploy multiple lithium refining trains using a proven and repeatable engineering model, established through Lithium Universe’s Definitive Feasibility Study for the Bécancour Lithium Refinery Project in Québec, Canada.
The site visit also builds on the company’s earlier work and complements the progress underway at Bécancour.
The site in the Port of Brownsville is potentially capable of hosting a full replication of Bécancour and has space available for the company’s Photovoltaic (PV) Recycling Silver Extraction Project as well. Minor regional adaptations will be required for weather-based engineering considerations.
The company notes that the site visit confirmed the proposed location of the Port of Brownsville offers the right combination of land area, layout flexibility, multimodal transportation access, and integration potential for the company’s broader critical minerals strategy.
Executive Chairman Iggy Tan says that the site visit is a major milestone for the company.
“The proposed Brownsville US site has demonstrated all the critical characteristics we look for, land availability, logistics strength, industrial readiness, and expansion capacity,” Tan says.
“The visit allowed us to confirm that a full copy-and-past of our Bécancour design is not only potentially feasible but also commercially compelling. As the US accelerates its commitment to domestic critical minerals supply chains, we see exceptional strategic value in establishing our second refinery here.”
Lithium Universe will advance into the formal lease application phase for the project site and initiate a Scoping Study for an 18,270 tonnes per annum battery-grade lithium carbonate refinery.
Lithium Universe is focused on closing the “lithium conversion gap” in North America.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Lithium Universe
