PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Arizona Lithium has signed a strategic partnership letter of intent (LoI) with US environmental biotech company Cemvita to use its portable organic lixiviant production plant at Arizona’s newly established Lithium Research Centre.

Arizona earlier this month completed the scoping study for the Big Sandy lithium project, which confirmed the project’s economics.

The company said that it would fast-track the development of the Big Sandy project, with further processing and extraction test work to be undertaken at the established Lithium Research Centre, which is located on a 9 700 m² property in Tempe.

The Lithium Research Centre will function as a technology incubator focused on the extraction of lithium from a variety of ores and brines, as well as the production of battery-grade lithium chemicals for current and future battery technologies.

“We are very pleased to have signed this partnership with Cemvita. We are focused on our responsibility to our shareholders and to the environment and believe that both of these stakeholders will greatly benefit from the successful implementation of Cemvita’s technology,” said Arizona MD Paul Lloyd.

“We aim to be a model for sustainable development and be the pioneer for lithium producers to use technology like Cemvita’s. We are excited to see the initial results of the partnership in the next three to six months, at which time we will assess further partnership potential.”

Cemvita intends to revolutionize the mining industry by lowering the carbon footprint using industrial biotechnology. Cemvita’s Biomining team works with companies to optimize existing bioprocesses and develop new methods in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, to lower the energy and carbon intensity of the mining industry and enable extraction of the minerals required for a renewable energy future.