CleanTech Lithium shares just became much more attractive

The attraction of CleanTech Lithium shares increased this week after the Chile-focused miner announced positive results from its lithium brine processing pilot. 

We included CleanTech Lithium in our article ‘Three undervalued AIM-listed junior miners to watch this summer’, published at the beginning of this week.

The article notes the importance of CleanTech Lithium’s Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) process and the favourable economics it can provide for the company’s extraction and processing operations. 

Subsequent to the publication of our article, the company released an encouraging update on its DLE pilot project, which was well received by the market.

On Tuesday, CleanTech announced that its DLE pilot plant had produced high-quality eluate with low impurities. This demonstrates that the company’s technology has the potential to produce desirable lithium offtake and deliver the hoped-for economics for investors. 

“The analysis of the eluate shows the DLE performance has exceeded our expectations, concentrating the lithium grade of the feed brine by 3.6X while achieving high recovery rates and low impurities,” said Steve Kesler, Executive Chairman, of CleanTech Lithium.

“The first full batch of 24m³ of concentrated eluate is scheduled to be shipped in the coming weeks. The pilot plant has met its design capacity capable of producing 1 tonne of LCE per month, positioning CleanTech Lithium to produce significant quantities of lithium product samples for potential strategic partners.

“We are edging closer to be one of the first DLE based companies in Chile to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate.” 

CleanTech has sent the pilot plant’s eluate to North America for additional testing and processing into high-grade lithium carbonate.

The success of the pilot plant significantly derisks CleanTech Lithium’s business model and will go a long way to counter any arguments against the DLE process being experimental and unproven.

There is still a way to go to validate the process works at scale, but this week’s news is a vitally important milestone.