Industry Disruptive Technology for the Lithium Sector

Lepidico Limited is the 100% owner and developer of the L-Max® technology, a proprietary process which has the potential to commercially extract lithium and other valuable by-products from unconventional sources.

Traditionally lithium is extracted from brines or hard rock spodumene. However, there also exists a third potential source of lithium in the form of Li-rich micas such as lepidolite and zinnwaldite. These minerals are commonly found, but have been overlooked as a source of lithium because no commercial extraction process has existed for lithium recovery.
Enter L-Max®.

Lepidico has commenced a pre-feasibility study (PFS) to evaluate an L-Max® plant of minimum commercial scale to demonstrate the economic and technical viability of the technology.

The PFS is a key step on the pathway to commercialising the L-Max® technology, which has largely transitioned from research to development status. The scope of the PFS includes plant design criteria, optimal plant location, investigation of by-product markets, assessment of feedstock options, logistics, cost estimates, financial analysis and a defined scope for a feasibility study evaluation.

Ex-mine capital and operating costs estimates are expected to be completed in February 2017, with the PFS completed in the March 2017 quarter. Assuming a successful outcome, Lepidico will immediately transition to a feasibility study, which it is estimated will be completed in the December 2017 quarter.