Commercial production at Kenora-area deposit could begin in four or five years
Don Bubar, president and CEO of Avalon Advanced Materials Inc.
A company aiming to feed the growing lithium battery market with a mineral deposit near Kenora is designing a plant to produce large samples of lithium hydroxide for potential customers.
“Hopefully, we can get going on it next year,” said Don Bubar, president and CEO of Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. The company’s Separation Rapids property is rich in petalite, a high-purity lithium mineral. A preliminary economic assessment estimates the deposit, about 60 kilometres north of Kenora, could yield 14,600 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually for 10 years. Lithium hydroxide, a compound preferred by battery cathode makers, increases the life cycle of batteries.
Avalon has developed a bench scale process for producing lithium hydroxide from its petalite deposit. The National Research Council recently analyzed Avalon’s product, found it has high purity and deemed it a suitable precursor for the synthesis of cathode materials.
The company is now working to produce samples large enough to entice battery manufactures and investors. “We think we have a viable process, but there’s more work to do to further optimize it,” said Bubar. The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation has invested $500,000 in Avalon to help develop a demonstration plant to confirm the efficiency of its lithium hydroxide production process and to make large volume trial samples for customers. “We have a model for it,” said Bubar. “We know we can make it better and that’s where NOHFC has agreed to support that further work – to basically take this from bench scale to something that could be used commercially.”
Demand for lithium is growing as automakers around the world accelerate plans to produce more battery-powered electric vehicles. General Motors, one of the world’s largest auto manufacturers, plans to introduce two new battery powered vehicles by 2019 and has pledged to offer 20 electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles within the next five years.
Ford Motor Company is investing $4.5 billion in electrification with plans for 13 new electric vehicles over the next five years. Volkswagen expects to produce one million electric vehicles annually by 2025. Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin are also shunning gas and diesel vehicles in favour of electric autos.
Tesla Inc., an industry leader and maker of one of the world’s most popular electric cars, is expected to require 75,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually, five times more than what Avalon might produce from Separation Rapids. To help secure a reliable North American supply of lithium for its batteries, Tesla struck a deal to source lithium from a joint venture involving Bacanora Minerals Ltd., a Canadian company working to produce battery grade lithium carbonate from a deposit in northwestern Mexico.
“The lithium supply right now is nowhere near enough to meet the future forecast demands,” said Bubar. “The numbers are staggering.” He predicts demand for lithium could increase ten-fold in 10-15 years. “This market has to grow by many multiples to meet the future demand,” he said. “It’s game on now to try to find enough and bring that supply to the market.”
Avalon will continue bench scale work to optimize its lithium hydroxide production process to determine the right equipment and instrumentation for its initial pilot plant. It would make the most sense to put that processing plant as close as possible to the deposit in Kenora where there are well-suited industrial sites with access to rail, hydro and other services, Bubar said.
He sees securing a customer for Avalon’s lithium as a two-step process. “While there’s a mining component to this business, it’s really more of a specialty chemical business. It’s all about the process and making a product that will be accepted in the marketplace,” Bubar said. “So you have to find your customers and work with them on what their requirements are and then make sure your process will work to meet their needs.” Specifications for high-purity battery-making materials are getting more demanding, he explained. “To prove you can do that you’ve got to basically start at the pilot or demo plant scale, make sure it works, provide your customers with relatively large samples so that they can test them and basically confirm that it will work for them.”
Avalon has been working with a large stockpile of petalite from its Separation Rapids property. Bubar expects commercial production at the deposit could start in four or five years.
Source : www.sudburyminingsolutions.com