Braulio Carbajal

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, June 14, 2023, p. 23

The Canadian mining company Advance Lithium, with concessions in Mexico, claims to have found the technology to extract lithium from clay (the main manifestation of the mineral in Mexican soil), a process which, according to specialists, is extremely complicated and is one of the biggest challenges that Mexico faces in becoming an electricity producer of this mineral.

In a report, the mining company, which has deposits in the center of the country, assures that it has the right to use a patent-pending lithium and potassium extraction method for its saltworks, which is why it is already in talks with the state-owned LitioMx to form a joint venture and speed up the production process.

The first step in the method involves adding water to the clay and then shaking it to release the lithium and potassium from the clay. Subsequently, with electrical separation, a concentrate of lithium, potassium and water would be produced. Followed by adding an organic compound to the concentrate to separate the lithium and potassium from the water.

According to the Mining Chamber of Mexico (Camimex), there are three types of lithium deposits: traditional rock, which contains 5% lithium for each ton of material mined. Of these, there are few in the world, mainly in Australia and the United States, where 26% of world production comes from.

The second type are the saltworks, where 74% of the world’s lithium production comes from. These deposits are mainly found in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia (the lithium triangle), but unlike traditional deposits, for each ton of ore extracted, the lithium concentration is only 0.1%.

However, despite the low concentration, they are very profitable, because lithium can be concentrated quickly and inexpensively using an evaporation method, which makes these three nations powerhouses in this mineral.

Finally, there are clay deposits, such as those in Mexico, which have a lithium concentration of only 0.001% per ton and whose extraction requires a large amount of energy; Currently, there is no technology in the world that can make this type of exploration profitable.

Advance Lithium says the method it has developed would require little energy, which could be provided by solar panels.

In March 2021, this Canada-based company purchased 13 salt pans containing lithium, potassium and boron in San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas, along with a pilot plant and a patented extraction method to mine the ore. By June of that year, the company had detected 8,397.3 parts per million of lithium in a total of 30 samples evaluated.

Currently, the report says, the company is building a demonstration plant in Zacatecas with a team of metallurgists who work for major Mexican mining companies that build and operate production facilities. The goal, he says, is to show off his new method of extracting lithium and potassium.