The Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE) share price is surging in Monday morning trade, up 9.8%.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) lithium stock closed Friday trading for 46 cents. Those shares are currently swapping hands for 51 cents apiece.
This comes after the company released a promising lithium production update.
What did the ASX 200 lithium stock report?
The Lake Resources share price is leaping higher after the miner reported it had produced 2,500 kilograms of lithium carbonate equivalents (LCE) at its lithium pilot plant Project Kachi, located in Argentina.
The announcement of this "major milestone" was made jointly with Lake Resources' direct lithium extraction technology partner, Lilac Solutions.
The partners noted that this marks the first successful use of ion exchange technology for lithium production in South America. They pointed out that the continent is home to "most of the world's lithium brine resources".
Following the successful production, Lilac's ownership of the Kachi Project has increased from 10% to 20%.
According to the release, the LCEs were extracted with 80% lithium recovery, 90% plant uptime, using 1,000 times less land compared with evaporation ponds, and 10 time less water compared with conventional aluminium-based absorbents.
Commenting on the results sending the Lake Resources share price surging today, the CEOs said in a joint statement:
Today's announcement marks a new era in scalable lithium production. Lithium is a cornerstone of the energy transition – but limitations in production technology have led to increased costs, scarcity, and extreme price volatility.
Today, we've proven that it is possible to produce high-purity lithium faster and without evaporation ponds – all while protecting surrounding communities and ecosystems.
The partners added that following on this success Kachi is on track to move from its pilot phase into commercial-scale development. Once operational, Kachi will be the first lithium brine project in South America to produce lithium at commercial scale without evaporation ponds for lithium concentration.
On completion, Kachi is expected to produce 50,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium products per year.
Lake Resources share price snapshot
As you can see in the chart below, the past 12 months have seen the Lake Resources share price come under serious pressure.
With today's intraday gains factored in, the ASX 200 lithium share remains down 78% since this time last year.
Of course, investors who bought stock at Friday's close will be sitting on today's gains of 10%.
