The highly anticipated process of extracting lithium from petroleum brine water (known as “petrolithium”) is quickly advancing toward reality. MGX Minerals (OTC: MGXMF; CSE: XMG; FKT: 1MG), the innovator and sole proprietary technology holder of petrolithium, recently reported positive results of a lithium project operated by its engineering partner, Purlucid Treatment Solutions.
Tasked with the challenge of upgrading bulk samples of petro lithium brines at its 132,000-hectare Sturgeon Lake Petro Lithium Project located at Fox Creek, Alberta, Purlucid over delivered – significantly increasing concentration levels and separating out excess minerals.
Under the direction of Purlucid CEO Dr. Preston McEachern, the company’s technical staff developed a method that cleanses the brine prior to later stages of the process.
Dr. McEachern noted in the technical report that detailed the results, “The biggest challenge in lithium recovery is creating a clean brine. Once other ions are removed it is much easier to recover lithium as a pure carbonate or chloride.”
Announced as a lithium extraction process optimization program, Purlucid’s newly developed sieve successfully upgraded MGX Minerals’ samples of brine from 67mg/L Li to 1600mg/L Li in the filtration and pre-treatment phase of the extraction process.
And while the numbers are a massive upgrade, perhaps lost in the fold is the significance of the other successes of the results – in particular the complete removal of magnesium, boron and potassium. Successfully removing these three elements with a filter prior to the chemical separation stage should further make a positive impact on the expected cost of production for the entire petrolithium process.
Also worth noting is that the magnesium removal was completed in a single isolation process that resulted in a form that the group believes may also be saleable.
MGX and Purlucid are now collaborating in the bulk sample and pilot plant design optimization phase of development in preparation for deployment.
SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS
In early projections for the petrolithium concept, MGX Minerals’ top brass were prepared to proceed with its extraction process with concentrations of 130mg/L and possibly lower. However, with its engineering partners and water treatment specialists, Purlucid priming the solution prior to MGX Minerals’ processing to a level of 1600mg/L could represent major savings on capex projections.
With this new sieve’s development, MGX Minerals is looking at operating with solutions that are 1200% higher than expected. As well, the solution will already have the trace elements of magnesium, boron and potassium removed from the brine, leaving only lithium and calcium to process in the operation.
According to the partnership, the combined efforts of MGX Minerals and Purlucid’s integrated oil field brine lithium extraction process implements two primary steps: 1. A brine cleansing step to remove residual oil and other impurities, and 2. A mineral extraction step to extract lithium.
The implementation of this new sieve has been labeled by the developers as a filtration and pre-treatment phase. However, given the results of the latest report, it appears that the pre-treatment phase is doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
The results were reported in the Phase 2 Lithium Extraction Technology Development Report: Summary of laboratory lithium extraction optimization trials, dated February 21, 2017.
According to the report [proprietary information redacted]:
”In the first attempt [using the Purlucid process], a clean lithium chloride brine containing 1600 mg/L [Li] was created free from magnesium, boron and potassium. In the second trial, run two weeks later on stored brine the results were duplicated with a clean lithium chloride brine again containing 1600 mg/L [Li]. In both cases a small amount of calcium carried through to the brine but this can be addressed in future optimization.”
The goal of creating a clean concentrated lithium brine by filtering through Purlucid’s sieve technology is to optimize the design of the pilot plant, therefore reducing the size and cost of MGX’s mineral extraction components.
STURGEON LAKE RESOURCE POTENTIAL
MGX Minerals holds the largest lithium portfolio in Canada. Skeptics of the effectiveness of the petrolithium process should take note that these bulk samples were taken directly from MGX Minerals’ Sturgeon Lake Petro Lithium Project. The brine water was directly extracted from water batteries operated by a petroleum major who has a working agreement with MGX Minerals as it develops this process.
The news of the sieve’s successes moves the entire petrolithium concept at least three steps closer to full production, and towards unlocking the massive 2 million tonne lithium carbonate resource in place into NI-43101 compliance.
The resource was calculated and originally reported by the property’s previous owners who were blocked from declaring the lithium resource’s compliance on account of no technology at the time being available to feasibly and commercially extract lithium from the brine.
Now that MGX Minerals is getting closer to proving the efficacy of its technology, shareholders can look forward to possibly unlocking the 2 million tonne lithium carbonate resource and getting it back on the books.
The initial petrolithium pilot plant is projected to process 12,000 liters of brine per day, though management is targeting a future plant capable of handling over a million liters of brine per day. It can be expected that future plants will be located near a major’s water collection and reinjection sites, complete with available infrastructure already in place.
Using current conservative prices of $12,000 per tonne, and the potential to produce upwards of 14,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year, the potential from just one major plant would be revenues of nearly $170 million per year.
The potential is not just restricted to Canada or Alberta either.
MGX Minerals holds the sole legal patent on the petrolithium process across North America. The company has already expanded the USA, with operations planned within Utah under the wholly owned subsidiary called PetroLithium Corporation of America.
It’s worth noting that any start to operations in Utah would be fortuitously close to the emerging Gigafactory started by Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). As Tesla ramps up its operations, so too will it ramp up its demand for a steady supply of lithium for its vehicles and high capacity battery storage for homes.
As MGX Minerals gets closer and closer to full production, it can be expected that other petroleum majors beyond its brine supplier in Alberta will look to employ MGX Minerals’ ability to spin costly waste water into a commercially viable basket of valuable minerals saleable to market. There is a seemingly endless supply to lithium-bearing brines in North America, and MGX Minerals is working towards proving that it holds the keys to unlocking its potential.
For more information visit http://www.mgxminerals.com
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