Tag Archives: Veolia Water Technologies

ioneer contracts Veolia Water Technologies for Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project

Energy minerals, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ioneer Ltd has awarded a major engineering and equipment supply contract to Veolia Water Technologies Inc for the development of the company’s wholly-owned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada, USA.

Veolia has commenced work on final detailed engineering design of the equipment package, which includes evaporation, crystallisation and dewatering equipment. It is the largest single supply contract that ioneer will award as part of the Rhyolite Ridge build, the company said.

The contract has been awarded on a limited notice to proceed basis. Phase one, the supply of engineering services for detailed design, has commenced while phase two, the supply of equipment, is conditional on a final investment decision on the project by ioneer’s Board of Directors.

The lithium and boron resource at Rhyolite Ridge is estimated at 146.5 Mt, including a reserve of 60 Mt. The company expects to mine and process 63.8 Mt over the 26-year mine life at an average annual rate of 2.5 Mt/y.

Veolia is, ioneer says, a world leader in the design and delivery of systems for purification, recovery and drying of inorganic chemicals using HPD® evaporation and crystallisation technologies. Furthermore, Veolia provides state-of-the-art research and development capabilities to facilitate the understanding of multi-component systems and their optimisation for efficiency, operability and final product quality.

Veolia and ioneer have been working together since 2018 to demonstrate the feasibility of the process design, including design and operation of ioneer’s full simulation pilot plant in Vancouver, British Columbia. Veolia has also conducted laboratory testing and simulated key unit operations including clarification, ion exchange purification, evaporation, crystallisation and precipitation at Veolia’s Phillip J Stewart Technology Center in Plainfield, Illinois, including the production of high purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate. The results obtained from this work further confirmed the design parameters, reduced the technical risks and boosted the project economics, according to ioneer.

ioneer Managing Director, Bernard Rowe, said: “We have been working closely with Veolia over the past three years during the pilot plant and definitive feasibility study phases and have developed a strong relationship and mutual respect. Veolia is a recognised leader in process design and engineering, with direct experience in developing solutions for lithium processing facilities. Veolia’s experience and capabilities are important to meet required purity standards in our production facilities.”

CEO of Veolia Water Technologies Americas, Jim Brown, said: “Veolia, as the leader in ecological transformation, is excited to be part of ioneer’s commitment to providing the materials necessary to further develop renewable energy and clean technologies by utilising our industry experience and state-of-the-art research facility to develop this resource. Our long-term cooperation working together with ioneer has been instrumental in bringing the project to this point.”

Veolia crystalliser technology to help Salt Lake Potash produce SOP

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Veolia Water Technologies says it has been contracted by Salt Lake Potash to supply HPD® crystallisation systems for its Lake Way potash mining project in Western Australia.

The systems will help the company produce a high-quality sulphate of potash (SOP) fertiliser, it said.

Salt Lake Potash is developing Lake Way into a 245,000 t/y SOP (K2SO4) operation, with first production expected by the end of the year. To recover low-cost, high-grade SOP, the production uses solar evaporation to concentrate the hypersaline, potassium-rich brines for salt harvesting, according to Veolia.

To further process these solids, Veolia will design and supply two HPD crystallisers: one to grow 32 t/h of high-purity potassium sulphate crystals, the other to recycle 54 t/h of solids to yield the maximum potassium recovery.

As part of this contract, Veolia provided bench-scale testing at its Phillip J. Stewart Technology centre in Plainfield, Illinois (USA). The results validated the feed chemistry, simulated the optimal flowsheet design, and confirmed process performance projections that helped to de-risk the project, according to the company.

To accelerate this fast-track project and achieve the delivery schedule, Veolia staged the progress to advance the basic engineering and testing simultaneously, it said. “These actions not only optimised capital investments but also lowered operating costs through a system design that minimises fouling and cleaning requirements,” the company explained.

Jim Brown, CEO of Veolia Water Technologies Americas, said: “We are pleased to support Salt Lake Potash in delivering natural fertilisers to a market hungry for specialty potash nutrients. Based on test work, which confirmed the process viability, our reliable proven crystalliser technology will help the flagship Lake Way project set the industry benchmark in producing high-grade SOP.”

With its HPD technologies tailored to growing fully-soluble crystals, Veolia helps global fertiliser producers optimise their recovery operations and the value of its product portfolio with a focus on enhancing environmental sustainability as well as energy and resource efficiencies, it said.

Bacanora taps Veolia Water Technologies for Sonora lithium carbonate flowsheet

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Veolia’s exhaustive testing program and process design expertise with its HPD® evaporation and crystallisation technologies recently validated Bacanora Lithium’s product purity requirements at the Sonora lithium project in Mexico, while removing potassium and converting a waste stream into a high-value-added fertiliser, according to the water- and chemical-focused technology company.

The company’s Veolia Water Technologies division engineered and designed the production process that recovers lithium carbonate and sulphate of potash from clay deposits using HPD systems.

Veolia explained: “Although lithium is a relatively abundant metal, high-purity lithium chemicals used by battery makers are rarer because lithium extraction, either from brines or hard rock, consists of a series of complex operations that make design production rates hard to achieve.”

While these issues are also common in other mining sectors, the problems with lithium are compounded because of the reduced number of lithium plants in operation, meaning industry knowhow is limited, according to the company.

To mitigate the risks of the Sonora project and confirm that the proposed technical and commercial process is both feasible and scalable, Bacanora, a lithium exploration and development company, relied on Veolia’s lithium production expertise to test the process flowsheet developed during the feasibility study and simulate the unit operations planned for the project. The outline was an integrated mine in northern Mexico designed to reach a capacity of 17,500 t/y of battery-grade Li2CO3 (lithium carbonate) operation in its first phase.

Different from most of the world’s lithium produced from hard-rock mines in Australia or from brines in South America, the lithium at Sonora is mined from clay — a rare type of deposit with the potential to become one of the world’s largest and lowest-cost lithium resources, according to Veolia.

Integrated to this plant, Veolia designed an evaporation circuit with a double crystallisation sequence featuring HPD® thermal separation technologies to maximise the recovery of potassium sulphate – also known as sulphate of potash (SOP) – and sodium sulphate, a valuable salt recycled upstream as the reagent in the clay roasting process.

The production line is completed by ion-exchange purification, solid-liquid centrifugal separation and drying systems to achieve >99.5% battery-grade lithium carbonate.

“We are proud to help game-changing miners in search of a partner with the knowhow to produce lithium from a variety of feedstocks. Veolia looks forward to further supporting the transformation of Bacanora into a major supplier of battery-grade lithium chemicals,” Jim Brown, Executive Vice President Veolia Water Technologies Americas, said.

Veolia to help refine lithium for Toyota Tsusho, Orocobre

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Veolia says it has been selected by Toyota Tsusho and Orocobre to supply lithium refining technologies to the Naraha plant in Japan.

Veolia Water Technologies will, under an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract, provide a chemical processing plant featuring HPD® evaporation and crystallisation technologies designed to convert lithium carbonate into lithium hydroxide employed in the manufacturing of batteries that power electric vehicles.

The Naraha facility is designed to convert 9,500 t/y of technical-grade lithium carbonate into 10,000 t/y of purified, battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

“Driven by their joint success in supporting the rapid evolution and adoption of electric mobility, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a global trading company in the Toyota Group, and Orocobre Ltd, an Australia-based industrial chemicals company, along with their joint venture Toyotsu Lithium Corporation awarded Veolia a comprehensive EPC contract to build a new plant in Japan,” Veolia said.

Thanks to low-cost operations and strong demand from Japanese battery makers, lithium carbonate volumes have been steadily increasing since Toyota Tsusho and Orocobre first produced lithium in 2015 at the brine-based Olaroz lithium facility, in northern Argentina, it said.

To support this growth, the joint venture made an investment decisions to raise output at Olaroz by 25,000 t/y of lithium carbonate, bringing total capacity to 42,500 t/y, with the Naraha hydroxide plant to process this increased feedstock capacity being the first of its kind in Japan.

To demonstrate the feasibility of the process design, Veolia said it successfully conducted laboratory testing and simulated key unit operations including clarification, ion exchange purification, evaporation, crystallisation, and precipitation at its Phillip J Stewart Technology Center in Plainfield, Illinois (USA).

“The results obtained from this work confirmed the design parameters, reduced the technical risks and boosted the project viability resulting in the joint venture’s decision to allocate the funds for the investment, which was also supported by a grant from the Japanese government,” Veolia said.

Jim Brown, Executive Vice President Veolia Water Technologies Americas, said: “We are pleased to be chosen by Toyota Tsusho and Orocobre to help them deliver the flagship Naraha project. This award further consolidates Veolia’s position as the preferred technology supplier of cutting-edge chemical processing solutions to global lithium producers and refiners.”