Intrepid Potash weighs potential to develop battery-grade lithium processing plant in Utah

[Ben Graham]

Intrepid Potash (NYSE:IPI), Aquatech International and Adionics SAS reported Tuesday the successful completion of test work to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate from byproduct brine at Intrepid’s Wendover, Utah potash facility.   

Denver- based Intrepid is a supplier of high-quality potassium, magnesium, sulfur, salt and water products used in agriculture, animal feed and the oil and gas industry.  

The company is the only US producer of muriate of potash, which is used in several industrial applications and as an ingredient in animal feed. It has two production facilities in Utah (Wendover and Moab), and one in Carlsbad, New Mexico. 

Intrepid said the potential to develop a lithium processing facility in Wendover has continued to progress as Adionics and Aquatech successfully produced battery-grade lithium carbonate in a demonstration test of Intrepid’s Wendover brine.  

The testing results achieved a lithium extraction rate of 92.9%, producing an overall lithium chloride purity above 99.5%, the company said.  The lithium that was produced from Adionics’ facility was further processed by Aquatech to validate the conversion and refining to battery-grade lithium carbonate.  

In additional testing, Aquatech successfully converted the lithium-rich brine to a ≥99.5% lithium carbonate product, meeting key specifications for battery manufacturing, the company said, adding that with the successful testing results, the parties will continue to move forward under the current Joint Development Agreement with their evaluation of a lithium facility in Wendover. 

“We are very excited to partner with Aquatech and Adionics to continue the development of our lithium resource at Wendover,” Intrepid CEO Kevin Crutchfield said in a news release. “Advancements in direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies have come at the perfect time, as the United States has reprioritized increasing its production of critical minerals.” 

Crutchfield said the company believes the existing infrastructure at its Wendover potash operation and the presence of lithium in its post-process brine differentiates this opportunity from other lithium development projects. 

“We’re hopeful our Wendover lithium project will be among the first domestic projects to enter the market,” Crutchfield said. 

“For this project, we still plan to limit our capital exposure and risk, and will continue to maintain our focus on our core fertilizer operations, but successfully monetizing lithium from our byproduct magnesium chloride brine will constitute an important step forward in driving margin improvement at Wendover.”  

By market close, Intrepid Potash’s stock was up 2.85% in New York. The company has a $382 million market capitalization.