The Lithium Australia NL (ASX: LIT) share price is sinking on Friday despite the release of a positive announcement.
In morning trade, the lithium company's shares are down a disappointing 4% to 12.5 cents.
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What did Lithium Australia announce?
This morning Lithium Australian announced that its LieNA pilot plant has been given the green light.
According to the release, LieNA is a caustic conversion technology with strong parallels to the production of alumina from bauxite. The process can produce a range of lithium chemicals, including hydroxide, carbonate, and phosphate.
Management notes that lithium phosphate is the preferred product, as it is easy to refine. It also commands a price premium over hydroxide or carbonate and is the ideal precursor to the production of lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries.
LFP is a safe, low-cost type of lithium-ion battery (LIB) which is the fastest growing sector within the LIB market.
What's next?
Management has advised that pilot concentrate is now being prepared from spodumene-bearing drill chips.
Furthermore, the construction of critical pilot-plant components has begun, with an order for autoclave placed and the initial pilot-plant test run scheduled for September.
Lithium Australia's Managing Director, Adrian Griffin, appears very optimistic on the LieNA technology.
He commented: "Lithium Australia's LieNA technology is the pinnacle for hydrometallurgical processing of spodumene, the principal hard-rock source of lithium. LieNA is capable of recovering lithium from fine and/or contaminated spodumene that fails to meet the feed specifications of current converters. It also provides the highest levels of impurity rejection. It is these characteristics that set it apart."
"LieNA, then, is designed to improve overall recovery and achieve better utilisation of existing resources: it's about cost reduction, sustainability and maximising the benefit of our critical (and finite) resources," he concluded.
