It’s a contemporary fact of global business, that lithium is a vitally important, tremendously in-demand, and hot commodity! And now, lithium is also exciting Canadian business news, as Alberta has become a dynamic player in the global lithium race, with last year’s launch of E3 Lithium’s direct extraction technology pilot plant.
Analysts and experts are unanimous. Lithium plays a critical role in most aspects of daily life. Lithium is an essential part of the technology that powers mobile phones, computers, power tools and the vital battery storage of energy generated by wind and solar power. Lithium is critical for the growth and future of the electric vehicle industry.
Stats show that the manufacturing of rechargeable batteries for electronics, electric vehicles and grid storage is the largest global use for lithium, representing 80 per cent of total demand.
Lithium is now a key focus of the Canadian government’s $3.8-billion, eight-year critical minerals strategy, which aims to increase domestic extraction and production of the metal, along with other previously under-developed resources such as cobalt, copper, titanium and zinc.
Although the world’s biggest lithium producers are Australia, Chile and China, Alberta has long been acknowledged as having one of the world’s largest lithium deposits, located deep underground in the Leduc geological formation, which is also a major oil-and-gas producing area.
“We are into an exciting, new era,” said the industry respected and enthusiastic E3 president and CEO, Chris Doornbos, “for Alberta’s traditionally oil-and-gas-dominated economy. Without forsaking our past, the lithium industry is opening up a vital new industry, using our existing skillsets. It is an opportunity to be a global lithium leader.”
E3’s innovative success is tremendous. The dynamic E3 Lithium, the publicly traded junior resource company headquartered in Calgary, is quickly earning its rank as a leader in the space. In addition to holding the mineral rights to an estimated 16 million tons of lithium resource, E3 has developed a unique made-in-Alberta technology that extracts the lithium that occurs naturally within oilfield brines.
Now, the E3 innovation and success gets even better! The company recently announced the discovery of higher lithium concentrations in the Nisku Aquifer (the Nisku) through a new six well sampling program conducted late last year.
“Finding higher concentrations of lithium in the Nisku is a significant discovery,” Doornbos points out. “It opens the door to potentially produce from an additional aquifer to the Leduc in the future. The Nisku is well known in Alberta as a prolific oil producer and is similar to the Leduc in that respect.
“And while E3 has not yet completed a resource estimate in the Nisku, if successful, it would add additional resources to our already significant resource base from the Leduc.”
