https://www.miningweekly.com
Copper|Engineering|Testing|Water|Environmental|Operations
Copper|Engineering|Testing|Water|Environmental|Operations
copper|engineering|testing|water|environmental|operations

Speedier, greener lithium may be nine years away, Codelco says

10th June 2024

By: Bloomberg

  

Font size: - +

Codelco, the copper giant that’s about to become a major lithium player, delivered some cautious guidance on the timing of a cleaner, faster way to extract the battery metal in northern Chile.

A week after signing contracts to take a majority stake in SQM’s sprawling brine operations on the Atacama salt flat, Codelco indicated that direct lithium extraction, or DLE, probably wouldn’t be introduced there for another nine years — and only as a complement to the current evaporation method.

“I imagine that around 2033 we are going to have direct extraction — and not in the entirety,” Chairman Maximo Pacheco told reporters in Santiago on Thursday.

His comments will pour some cold water on the notion of a swift roll-out of technologies that offer cheaper, faster and greener ways to extract lithium in South America, which holds about half of the world’s reserves. DLE proponents include Chile’s government, which is looking to ease the environmental concerns of local communities and investors given all the water that is lost in the current evaporation process that can take more than a year.

To be sure, Pacheco said SQM’s testing of DLE was delivering promising results. But the new partnership will have to navigate multiple steps — from conceptual engineering, to environmental approvals and commercial implementation.

Edited by Bloomberg

Comments

Latest Multimedia

Menar awaits Competition approval for re-start of major ferromanganese facility
Resources Watch
Updated 3 hours ago

Showroom

Weir
Weir

Weir is a global leader in mining technology. We recognise that our planet’s future depends on the transition to renewable energy, and that...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Victaulic
Victaulic

Since 1919, Victaulic’s innovative solutions and design services continue to increase construction productivity and reduce risk, ensuring projects...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.147 0.175s - 129pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now