Russia's Rosatom has developed a way to pull lithium from Uzbekistan's rocks without producing waste, and the find could put Uzbekistan on the battery map.
Russia's Rosatom has developed a way to pull lithium from Uzbekistan's rocks without producing waste, and the find could put Uzbekistan on the battery map.
Scientists at Rosatom's Giredmet institute worked out how to process lithium-bearing mica ore from the Nurlikon deposit, recovering 94.44% of the lithium into finished products. The ore holds about 0.5% lithium oxide, and the planned plant would process 750,000 tonnes of ore a year, producing more than 8,500 tonnes of high-purity lithium carbonate.
The trick is what happens to the waste: there is none. The process reuses phosphogypsum, a by-product from the Almalyk Chemical Plant, and the leftover tailings are meant to go to the cement industry instead of a landfill.
Why it matters: lithium carbonate is the raw material for the batteries in electric cars and grid storage, and the world is hunting for new supply outside the usual producers. For Uzbekistan, it turns a low-grade deposit into a strategic asset, and pilot industrial tests are planned for next year.
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