MAN produces battery grade lithium hydroxide

Published 06-MAY-2024 11:00 A.M.

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Mandrake Resources (ASX: MAN) just produced lithium hydroxide directly from its brines using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology.

The news is important because it shows MAN’s brines can go from raw material to lithium hydroxide WITHOUT having to turn it into lithium carbonates first.

Usually, lithium brines are converted into carbonates and then processed into hydroxides - a process that requires a lot more energy & chemicals.

MAN, together with Rio Tinto backed ElectraLith (the DLE tech company) has managed to produce hydroxides directly from its lithium brines.

Now MAN is looking to get a “Strategic Partnership Agreement” done with ElectraLith which could see the company build a DLE-R pilot facility at MAN’s project.

Interest in US brine assets increasing…

MAN’s project sits on ~93,755 acres (~379km2) of ground in Utah, USA.

The project is in the same region as Anson Resources which is capped at $XM.

Anson has JORC resources across its project of ~1mt of contained lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) and exploration targets for a further ~3mt of LCE.

That compares to MAN’s current LCE exploration target between 1.7mt to 5.6mt.

So while, MAN’s market cap is a lot lower than Anson’s, it could potentially put together a maiden JORC resource estimate similar in size to Anson’s.

MAN’s maiden resource estimate is the next major catalyst we are looking forward to given it will give the market something to compare MAN against Anson with.

Why does being so close to Anson matter?

Because Anson recently signed a binding offtake agreement with LG Energy Solutions.

LG is one of the biggest battery producers in the world and is clearly looking to lock up some US sourced lithium supply to feed its US facilities.

LG currently has ~8x facilities operating or under construction in North America, 6x of which are joint ventured with major carmakers.

The news is a good sign that major offtake partners have a close eye on this part of the US and would also make MAN’s job of finding partners for itself a lot easier.