VSPC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lithium Australia (LA), has successfully manufactured lithium-ion cathode material and lithium-ion batteries themselves from lithium mining waste.
This announcement marks the success of an extended project for LA, after BEST Battery Briefing reported last August that they had obtained permission to extract lithium from mining dumps in Western Australia.
Waste tri-lithium phosphate— which is a direct waste product from lithium mining— was successfully converted into lithium-iron-phosphate cathode material at LA’s laboratory and pilot plant facility in Brisbane, Queensland.
The cathode material produced was characterised by x-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscope images, and was determined to be “of similar quality to VSPC standard lithium-iron-phosphate material”.
Manufacturing lithium-ion batteries from mine waste without having to produce a lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate precursor is described by LA as a “world first.”
In bypassing the need to produce a battery precursor, LA’s process has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of manufacturing batteries, as well as reducing global demand for lithium.
LA is also developing its SiLeach process to directly produce cathode powders from lithium brines, which would also reduce the need for evaporation ponds.
LA managing director Adrian Griffin (pictured) said: “The broader application to lithium brine exploitation provides enormous potential for that part of the lithium industry, by removing the cost intensive route to lithium hydroxide – the direct use of lithium phosphate to produce cathode powders may do that.”
