Lithium South Development Corporation is pleased to report completion of laboratory scale evaluation using synthetic brine modeled on the Hombre Muerto North Lithium Project (HMN Li Project) chemical composition. The test work was completed by Chengdu Chemphys Chemical Industry Ltd. (Chemphys) utilizing its proprietary XFP-Lithium Direct Lithium Extraction process, which selectively extracts lithium ions from brine.

Testing was performed at the Chemphys ISO certified facility in Chengdu, China. Independent check sampling was completed at the PONY Testing International Group Co Ltd., an ISO/IEC 17020 and ISO/IEC 17025 certified laboratory. All work was completed under the supervision of Don Hains of Hains Technology Associates of Toronto, Canada, who is acting as the Qualified Person.

The process conditions were screened to select optimized parameters, (including operating at 25 oC). The average lithium recovery achieved was 80%, producing an intermediate lithium sulfate product enriched from 0.7 g/L Li to 1.7g/L Li. This represents a near 100% increase in lithium extraction, in comparison to the conventional evaporation process results completed by the Company. The laboratory test work shows good selectivity of the adsorption process, high Li adsorption, elution and total recovery rate and low adsorbent loss rate. Chemphys also determined that the intermediate lithium sulfate produced met the feedstock quality requirements to directly produce battery grade lithium carbonate.

Conventional lithium extraction involves the construction of large evaporation ponds to concentrate the lithium contained in the raw brine. The costs of pond construction is significant, the environmental footprint is large, and the production lead time is approximately 18 months.

The next phase of test work will involve pilot plant cycle testing using synthetic brine and validation using a large bulk sample of HMN Li Project brine. The bulk brine sample acquisition will be conducted next week, with the sample expected in China by March.  The pilot program will further validate the process conditions established by the laboratory test work on a larger scale, continuous cycle program, and also produce high quality lithium carbonate samples. The pilot testing is expected to be completed in 2Q 2021.