Esmeralda Minerals LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pure Energy Minerals Limited based in Vancouver, Canada has announced that, based on the progress to date, the Department of Energy (DOE) has released the remaining funding for its collaboration with SRI International, a research and innovation center, to develop novel cost-effective methods for lithium extraction from geothermal brines. Nitto Innovations Inc. (NII), a US subsidiary of the Japanese diversified materials manufacturer Nitto Denko Corporation, has also joined the project.
Jointly funded by the DOE and the partners, SRI has teamed with Esmeralda Minerals LLC and NII to develop, validate and commercialize a new generation of highly selective ion exchange resins to separate metals, including lithium, from geothermal fluids more efficiently and at lower cost than current processes. The research is being conducted using lithium-enriched brines collected from the Company’s lithium brine project in Clayton Valley, Nevada and release of these funds allows expanded testing using Esmeralda’s resources.