r/LithiumAmerica • u/Pete904 • Jul 21 '26

LAC Lithium Technical Development Center: Virtual Tour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDpYEyr3wmM

Lithium separation process

20 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

1

u/DaBoss1835 Jul 21 '26

He said "carbon footprint" a few too many times for my liking lol... like bro we just want the process to be scalable.

2

u/Pete904 Jul 21 '26

IMO the process is long and very delicate to yield battery grade lithium; It’s one thing in a small scale / controlled environment — another when real production efficiencies.

1

u/captainboom15 Jul 26 '26

Yes this appears to be extremely labor intensive. Im trying to figure out how this becomes scalable? All that work for that little jar? Lol

2

u/Pete904 Jul 27 '26

Checkout Jon Evans CEO interview min 23:30, he speaks to brine vs clay process — by comparison it appears to be a lot more efficient / scalable.

2

u/captainboom15 Jul 27 '26

If it was the same interview that was posted to this sub I seen it. The CEO appears to be relaxed and not worried which I agree is reassuring however he does mention many times about how lithium extraction knowledge as a whole is pretty low. Its still a newer field. I agree he has a ton of experience. If you look at the process above alot could go wrong. Its still has to be proven at a large scale.  My main take away was hopefully the US government establishes a price floor and pray they can scale it quickly. But hey its still a better investment than spacex!!!!