Li-Metal announces that it has produced refined metal from lithium carbonate process

Li-Metal announces that it has produced refined metal from lithium carbonate process

TORONTO — Li-Metal Corp., a developer of lithium metal and lithium metal anode technologies critical for next-generation batteries, announced it has successfully produced its first lithium metal at the Company’s lithium metal piloting facility in Markham, Ontario.

Domestic lithium metal production capacity is essential for the development of a sustainable supply chain for next-generation batteries. Conventional lithium-ion battery anodes do not contain lithium metal and the supply chain depends heavily on materials such as graphite, which presents energy density and sustainability challenges. Li-Metal’s demonstration of lithium metal production from carbonate further advances the Company’s vision to establish North American based lithium metal production capacity that next-generation battery developers can leverage. Additionally, this milestone will allow the Company to secure its own supply of lithium metal for its anode production, in order to implement its vertically integrated business model.

“We are thrilled to have successfully produced lithium metal demonstrating that our patented technology can produce this highly valuable and strategic material,” said Maciej Jastrzebski, co-founder and CTO of Li-Metal. “This marks a major milestone for Li-Metal as we work toward scaling our vertically integrated anode production operations. This is an important precursor to establishing commercial scale metal production and we believe it is the foundation for cost-effective and more sustainable lithium metal production in North America.”

The production of lithium metal directly from lithium carbonate removes the need for corrosive lithium chloride feedstock material which consequently eliminates the production of chlorine gas encountered in conventional lithium metal production processes.

The ability to produce lithium metal is a step towards the Company’s goal to demonstrate continuous lithium metal production as it builds on its piloting program in Markham, Ontario. Li-Metal plans to continue running piloting campaigns on the Company’s pilot scale process to refine the product quality and process economics in preparation for commercial deployment. This is in parallel to advancing work on the engineering study for a commercial-scale lithium metal facility and exploring opportunities for sale of lithium metal into the battery industry and conventional lithium metal markets to build a healthy order book for the Company’s businesses.