GEM Mining Consulting is looking into several companies that are studying how to recover lithium from secondary sources including mining waste.
Mining waste is usually treated as a problem, but companies and researchers are beginning to see old piles of rock, residue, and industrial by-products as potential resources, especially for critical minerals.
A 2025 review published in Resources Policy in 2026 described mining and mineral processing wastes as one of the world’s largest waste streams. It reviewed sources such as waste aluminosilicates, bauxite residues, coal gangue, and ash, tin-tungsten residues, and other industrial wastes.
GEM Mining reports the study found that extraction is more attractive when lithium can be recovered together with other valuable elements, such as rare earths, aluminium, rubidium, caesium, germanium, gallium, or vanadium.
“Getting lithium from material that has already been mined could help reduce the pressure to dig new deposits,” GEM Mining says.
It also addresses old waste sites, turning environmental liabilities into useful feedstock.
Putting reclamation in focus
Previously speaking to Mining.com.au, reclamation-focused explorer Sasquatch Resources (CSE:SASQ) CEO Pete Smith says waste reclamation at legacy mine sites must be among the most, if not the most efficient ways to add critical minerals and other elements to the supply chain.
“Typically, the waste is piled at surface, and very easily accessible via old mining roads,” Smith tells this news service.
“No new significant mining infrastructure is needed, except in the final stages of processing, which would happen at an already existing facility. The crushing and ore sorting can be done using a mobile set-up, on a closed loop, so there is no newly created waste.”
As a result, permitting timelines can be reduced, allowing dormant piles to transition into production far more rapidly than greenfields exploration and development projects.
Sasquatch Resources aims to reshape modern approaches to legacy mine cleanup via its Mount Sicker Project in British Columbia, Canada, as previously reported.
Operated between 1895 and 1915, Mount Sicker contains historical waste rock piles with gold, silver, copper, and zinc. If approved, Mount Sicker could become one of the first modern examples in Canada of linking large-scale legacy site remediation directly with mineral recovery.
“It’s a beautiful environment except this legacy site, which is about five football fields or so in size,” CEO Peter Smith tells Mining.com.au.
“We’d love to be able to go up there two years from now and say, look, there are trees growing again, there are new bushes and grass and this was all made possible by us going through this permitting process and ultimately removing these high sulphides and making the site friendly again for nature to step in.”
Lithium recovery in Chile
One company – Quiborax – is looking into lithium recovery from its own mining waste. In late 2023, Chile’s Nuclear Energy Commission authorised Quiborax to conduct processing tests on lithium found in the mining waste to determine whether the material is technically exploitable.
In May 2026, the project advanced again when Chile’s Comptroller completed a legal review of the decree containing the special lithium operation contract that the state is expected to sign with the company.
GEM Mining says this step can move the project toward engineering and construction once the contract is formalised, but it does not by itself make Quiborax a full-scale lithium producer.
Quiborax says the opportunity could support around 2,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually from more than nine million tonnes of industrial by-products, if the technology, permitting, and economics align.
If Quiborax’s tests prove technically and environmentally viable, the project could demonstrate how mining regions can find value in what has already been mined rather than opening new sites.
Secondary sources will not replace conventional lithium supply, but rather can serve as a useful complement, especially when legacy waste can be safely treated and co-products improve project economics.
Where else this is happening…
Several other companies are testing, developing, or producing lithium from tailings, stockpiles, waste, or industrial byproducts.
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) has produced battery-grade lithium carbonate from waste rock at the Boron Mine in California, US. The demonstration plant is small, with a design capacity of about 10 tonnes per year, with the possibility of scaling up to at least 5,000 tonnes per year, using waste rock for more than 90 years.
International Battery Metals’ (CSE:IBAT) modular direct lithium extraction plant processed a lithium-bearing waste-salt solution from prior magnesium production at US Magnesium, generating a high-purity chloride stream that was further processed into lithium carbonate.
The plant was designed to support up to 5,000 tonnes per year, but operations were suspended in September 2024 due to weak lithium carbonate prices.
Tantalex Lithium Resources (OTCQB:TTLXF) has been evaluating the historical tin mine tailings at the Kamativi Project in Zimbabwe, as a lithium-bearing surface tailings resource. The resource contains 26.32 million tonnes @ 0.58% lithium oxide.
Separately, the broader Kamativi lithium redevelopment has moved into large-scale concentrate production, with phase one and phase two capacity reported at 2.3 million tonnes of ore and 350,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate per year, with an expansion target toward 3.3 million tonnes of ore and nearly 500,000 tonnes of concentrate per year.
GEM Mining says these projects show that lithium recovery from waste is technically possible. However, the consulting group notes that commercial outcomes depend on grade, consistency, reagent and water use, product quality, lithium prices, and permits.
Some projects are demonstration plants, while others are redevelopment projects or inactive operations.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: GEM Mining Consulting, Sasquatch Resources, Quiborax & Unsplash
