ANSTO has been supporting efforts by Galaxy Resources for more than 20 months in the production of battery-grade lithium carbonate from their Sal de Vida Project in north west Argentina.
The work with Galaxy Resources started in mid 2019, when ANSTO began process development work aimed at simplifying the Sal de Vida flowsheet.
Following the success of these flowsheet improvements, ANSTO's Tiernan York was deployed to Argentina to demonstrate the updated process flowsheet and provide specialist consultation for the design, construction and commissioning of the pilot plant.
Due to COVID-19 Tiernan returned to Australia to continue his role remotely, providing support to the project team in Perth as well as on-site in Argentina using a range of communication platforms. The pilot plant exceeded expectations and technical grade specifications producing 'high-grade' lithium carbonate product.
Late in 2020, about 1,000kg of product was transported to ANSTO for sample preparation and detailed characterisation. Sample preparation included bulk drying and packaging. Analytical techniques included inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), ion-selective electrode (ISE) analysis, and determination of acid insolubles.
The recent announcement by Galaxy that the simplified flowsheet had achieved 99.83% purity lithium carbonate is a significant milestone for the project, as it demonstrates that battery grade lithium carbonate can be produced without additional refining steps.
