Rio Tinto studying ways to produce lithium from waste rock at California mine

Texas Mineral Resources

22/10/2019 02:00

By Ernest Scheyder
    Oct 21 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto Plc  RIO.L  is studying ways to
extract lithium from waste rock at a mine it controls in
California, making it the latest company trying to produce the
battery metal in the United States for the fast-growing electric
vehicle market.
    The move by Rio comes as U.S. politicians and regulators
push to expand domestic mining of so-called strategic minerals
used to make EV batteries and other high-tech equipment. China
is the world's largest producer and consumer of many of these
minerals. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2680R8 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N26A19N
    Rio has produced borates - a group of minerals used to make
soaps, cosmetics and other consumer goods - for nearly a century
in the Mojave Desert, about 120 miles (195 km) north of Los
Angeles.
    That has left behind decades' worth of waste rock, known in
the industry as tailings. Rio said it had been probing the
tailings for gold and discovered lithium at a concentration
higher than rival U.S. projects under development, although the
company declined to give the exact percentage.
    "The material being used has already been mined, so this
will be a low-energy option for the production of lithium," Bold
Baatar, Rio's chief executive of energy and minerals, said in a
statement to Reuters.
    The company is spending $10 million to build a pilot plant
that will extract the white metal using a heat-and-leaching
process involving a kiln heated to 1,740°F (949°C).
    The pilot plant will only produce about 10 tonnes annually.
If that step is successful, Rio said it would consider spending
$50 million to build an industrial-scale plant to make 5,000
tonnes of lithium annually.
    That would be roughly the same production capacity as a
lithium brine project in Silver Peak, Nevada, controlled by,
Albemarle Corp  ALB.N  - the world's largest lithium producer.
    Rio said its facility could eventually be the largest
lithium producer in the United States, though it did not give
any long-term output estimates.
    If brought into commercial production, the Rio facility
would make battery-grade lithium, the type of the metal sought
by Panasonic Corp  6752.T  and other cathode producers, who in
turn supply the battery part for use in Teslas  TSLA.O  and
other electric vehicles.
    Rio also controls Utah's Kennecott copper mine and a lithium
deposit in Serbia that has yet to be developed. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN22Q04E
    Other companies developing U.S. lithium projects include
Lithium Americas Corp  LAC.TO , Standard Lithium Ltd  SLL.V ,
Texas Mineral Resources Corp  TMRC.PK , Piedmont Lithium Ltd
 PLL.AX  and ioneer Ltd  INR.AX , which is developing a Nevada
lithium project also containing a large concentration of
borates. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N21J1OI urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2350WW 

 (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; editing by Richard Pullin)
 ((ernest.scheyder@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @ErnestScheyder;
+1-713-210-8512; Reuters Messaging:
ernest.scheyder.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))