Evove and Zelandez have announced the signing of a partnership set to develop a fully modular at-source production process right from raw brines to final lithium product used in batteries.
The agreement was formalized at the Fastmarkets Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials conference event in Las Vegas today.
The partnership aims to develop a fully modularised production process with best-in-class technologies, run field tests at a client project to corroborate and optimise performance, and then commercialise globally.
Evove plans to commission the first modularised DLE plant in Q4 2024, with scaled expansion to full production expected at that client’s site by 2027.
“Often it’s the quality of the people that make a business successful, and Evove is no exception,” Clint Van Marrewijk, the co-founder of Zelandez, said.
“They have combined the significant technical expertise needed, with typical British doggedness, to develop some impressive lithium technology.”
Chris Wyres, Evove’s chief executive, says the partnership was born through a mutual understanding of the connections between lithium and the oil and gas sector.
“We established an easily scalable, modular engineering approach to our DLE from the get-go, which makes Zelandez with their modular carbonation approach a natural partner for us,” he said.
“We are mimicking the standardisation of plants using our technologies in more mature sectors we are active in, such as desalination. Combining Zelandez’s expertise in well management and the downstream conversion to a battery product, with Evove’s highly efficient processing of lithium brine, is central to now ramping up lithium production rapidly in key geographies.”
The planned pilot site is located close to an upcoming battery manufacturing facility, creating jobs and helping secure a domestic supply of lithium for the region.
With the gap in supply of lithium into electric vehicle batteries widening due to a phenomenal growth in demand, the agreement between Evove and Zelandez comes at a crucial time in the lithium industry.
At the World Lithium Congress held in Washington D.C. Last week, Benchmark Minerals Intelligence predicted the need for an additional two million tonnes in annual production by 2030.
Photo: The Evove and Zelandez teams at the recent World Lithium Congress in Washington D.C., with Chris Wyres (fourth from left) and Clint Van Marrewijk (far right)
