PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium developer Vulcan Energy on Wednesday announced a collaboration with DuPont Water Solutions to test and scale up direct lithium extraction (DLE) for Vulcan’s Zero Carbon lithium extraction process.

Vulcan told shareholders that the agreement with DuPont was in line with the company’s strategy to test and pursue commercially mature DLE products from major suppliers for its project, in order to minimise technical risks and accelerate the project development.

DuPont would use its portfolio of DLE products to assist Vulcan with input and test work during the definitive feasibility study for the Zero Carbon project, and as part of the project, DuPont would be developing and testing an integrated DLE process for Vulcan’s brine.

“Collaborating with a company like DuPont is an important de-risking strategy for the DLE component of our Zero Carbon lithium project. DuPont’s diverse set of products which can be manufactured at scale are likely to be well suited to sustainably extract the lithium from the brine,” said Vulcan MD Dr Francis Wedin.

A recently completed scoping study into the Zero Carbon lithium project demonstrated the potential for a combined operation producing lithium hydroxide and renewable energy, with a net zero carbon footprint.

The scoping study considered the staged development of a brine extraction, power generation, lithium direct extraction plant and brine reinjection that would be co-located.

Stage 1 of the production plant will consist of a direct extraction and lithium plant at an operating, producing geothermal well and power plant, while Stage 2 of the operation will consist of the drilling of ten new geothermal production wells, and the construction of a new, combined geothermal, direct lithium extraction and lithium hydroxide plant at Vulcan’s Ortenau licence.