PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium developer Vulcan Energy Resources has secured a site for its planned lithium hydroxide plant, at the Höchst Chemical Park, outside of Frankfurt.

“Securing a site for the central lithium plant (CLP) is an important step toward the execution of the Zero Carbon lithium project. Importantly, the location allows for low carbon transport options from our nearby project areas, as well as renewable energy to power the proposed plant, which underpins our commitment to minimising our carbon footprint in each step of our process,” said Vulcan MD Dr Francis Wedin.

“This follows on from the first production of battery quality lithium hydroxide from our pilot plant, announced on September 27.”

The lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) was produced from Vulcan’s sorption pilot plant, located at a geothermal renewable energy plant in the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany, with downstream electrolysis processing offsite, as per Vulcan’s planned commercial Zero Carbon lithium project.

The lithium chloride extracted by the sorbent in the pilot plant was recovered with water and sent offsite, where it was purified and concentrated by a third-party provider to prepare the lithium chloride for electrolysis to produce lithium hydroxide solution. The solution was then crystalized to produce battery grade LHM.

The CLP is intended as a processing hub, processing lithium chloride from multiple combined geothermal and lithium sorption plants into LHM

From the CLP, the LHM is intended to be transported to Vulcan’s European customers in the battery and electric vehicle industry, dramatically lowering the transport footprint of the current lithium supply chain.

Vulcan said on Wednesday that the Höchst site featured a number of advantages for the project including proximity to Vulcan’s project areas where the integrated geothermal and sorption operations are proposed to be built, multiple low carbon transport modes available, the availability of renewable power on-site, and the required space and utilities for future phased expansion of the CLP.

Vulcan will be working with a dedicated team going forward to obtain necessary permits in the chemical park for the CLP construction and operation.

Vulcan is targeting Phase 1 commercial production for 2024.

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