At the 16th Fastmarkets Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials Conference in Las Vegas, USA, Northern Lithium Ltd and Evove Ltd announced the signing of a contract to install and trial an in-field direct lithium extraction (DLE) demonstration plant in the UK during the autumn of 2024.

The commercial agreement follows Evove’s extensive DLE processing at industrial-scale of saline brines extracted from Northern Lithium’s Northern Pennine Orefield, in August 2023, and the announcement of a tripartite partnership between Evove, Northern Lithium and engineering firm RSE in December 2023.

The initial module of a DLE demonstration plant is due to be commissioned at Northern Lithium’s first production site in County Durham during the autumn of 2024, with successive modular expansion of the plant thereafter to reach first full-scale commercial production of battery-grade lithium from 2027.

“This milestone agreement is the logical conclusion of intense preparation and successful piloting of Evove’s DLE technology on our lithium-rich brines,” Nick Pople, Northern Lithium Managing Director, said. “Our goal is to achieve first commercial production from 2027 and scale up from there to 10,000-plus tonnes of battery-grade lithium delivered per year from several production areas across the Northern Pennine Orefield within the next decade.”

Chris Wyres, Evove CEO, said: “The DLE plant is engineered in modules to allow scalable expansion. With in-built versatility, Northern Lithium has a variety of options for the production capacity and final lithium product created. It will demonstrate exemplary efficiency with some of the world’s most advanced technology for lithium extraction.”