ASX-listed mineral resources company Anson Resources has started construction on the demonstration plant at its Green River lithium project in the US.
This demonstration plant’s construction is considered to be the next major step in Anson’s plan to expedite the development of the Green River project.
The company also noted that it secured the relevant approvals for the demo site and has already started the groundwork. The site will begin production next January.
This follows the detailed geotechnical engineering study of the project, which began in May 2023.
The plant is being built on the company’s previously acquired industrial-use land.
Once completed, it is expected to produce lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃), which will be used by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other potential offtake partners.
Anson stated that it will continue to concentrate on replicating the direct lithium extraction (DLE) process used at its lithium innovation centre (LIC) in Florida.
This site has started sample production for OEMs along with cathode active material (CAM) qualification test work.
DLE is the first step in the lithium carbonate production process. A small DLE pilot plant included testing both adsorption and desorption processes.
During the test, the amount of lithium adsorption over other elements in a resin was tested. The data was collected from each step of lithium extraction and purification through to the final product.
Once the demo plant is built, the information collected from the test will be used for refining the efficiency of the lithium carbonate production process.
The data from the LIC plant in Florida is also claimed to have helped in understanding the production process.
This information has been used for the demo plant’s design, which is expected to produce additional samples using the same process from fresh brine.
The company also plans to replicate the equipment in use at the LIC Florida plant.
Located 50km from Anson’s Paradox lithium project, the Green River project is a strategic addition to Anson’s lithium asset portfolio in Utah.
The project has a total of 1,251 placer claims spread over an area of about 106.2km². It claims to have a substantial exploration target of 2-2.6 billion tonnes of brine with a grading between 100ppm [parts per million] and 150ppm of lithium and between 2,000ppm and 3,000ppm of Bromine.
