A $A50,000 innovations grant under the Federal Industry and Science Department’s Entrepreneur’s Program will serve as payment for laboratory scale optimisation by partner ANSTO Minerals – part of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
Optimisation is expected to focus on methods to recover lithium from silicates without the obligatory and expensive roasting step long used in the traditional lithium recovery process.
Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said the Sileach process could catapult Australia to the forefront of the lithium battery boom by supplying optimal purity material from the low-energy production of lithium chemicals.
Griffin welcomed the support of the Australian and Western Australian governments for innovation, as the “ideas boom” ideally suited the project’s development goals.
