SANTIAGO, April 24 (Reuters) – Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s plan to nationalize his country’s immense lithium industry is putting the spotlight on an emerging crop of filtration technologies aimed at revolutionizing how the metal is produced for the electric vehicle industry.
In a national prime time address, Boric said last Thursday a new state-owned company would work to slash the environmental impacts of lithium production by shifting away from evaporation ponds, traditionally used to remove the metal from brine, in favor of direct lithium extraction (DLE).
While neighboring Bolivia, as well as General Motors Co(GM.N), opens new tab, Rio Tinto Ltd(RIO.AX), opens new tab and other companies, have made their own DLE bets, Boric’s move represents the biggest vote of confidence to date in the commercially unproven suite of technologies given plans to deploy it across Chile’s vast lithium reserves, the world’s largest.
“This is the best chance we have at transitioning to a sustainable and developed economy,” said Boric, a leftist 37-year-old elected in late 2021.
DLE technologies are designed to extract the metal from salty brines in Chile’s Atacama Desert and elsewhere in the world using filters, membranes, ceramic beads or other equipment that can typically be housed in a small warehouse.