Companies commit to produce economic, high-quality lithium via joint asset ownership at the Salar de Incahuasi to strengthen global lithium supply to EV manufacturers
Summit Nanotech, an award-winning sustainable lithium extraction technology company, and Power Minerals, a mineral resources exploration company, announced they have entered into a binding term sheet leading toward a joint venture (JV) agreement to accelerate lithium production through shared asset ownership and development at the Salar de Incahuasi in Argentina. This comes as the lithium market experiences unprecedented growth due to the increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries, particularly in the race to mass produce electric vehicles.
The JV concession at the Salar de Incahuasi is part of an alluvial fan that has high quality brines with consistent lithium concentrations and a low impurity profile. This shallow, clean salar has the promising potential to contribute to ramping up production of lithium from Argentina and is adjacent to assets owned by Allkem and Ganfeng Lithium.
Commenting on the agreement Power Minerals Managing Director Mena Habib said, “We are delighted with our proposed relationship with Summit Nanotech to expedite the development of the Incahuasi salar, one of our core lithium brine assets within the Salta Project area. Having assessed a range of DLE technology options, we see Summit as the ideal partner to help us unlock and maximise the value of Incahuasi for the benefit of our shareholders. Summit’s combination of leading-edge proprietary DLE technology, which demonstrates excellent environmental and sustainability attributes, and Power’s Incahuasi brines offer the opportunity for the parties to work together to produce commercial-scale volumes of high-quality lithium. We look forward to this being the start of a long and mutually rewarding working relationship with the Summit team.”
Incahuasi salar brines work seamlessly with Summit’s sustainable DLE technology, denaLiTM, which is a patented process that extracts lithium from brine using a proprietary sorbent and water recovery solution. The transaction combines Summit’s first-in-class technology process with Power’s expertise in systematic exploration and project development.
This marks Summit’s first of many potential similar arrangements through which they will validate the performance of their DLE technology at scale for rapid future deployment at other lithium-rich salars in South America. Summit’s denaLi™ technology and engineering expertise will enable the partnership to efficiently deliver the large volumes of high-quality lithium needed to power the global energy transition in an ecologically conscious and community-oriented way.
“We’re excited to partner with Power Minerals, a like-minded company that shares our vision and commitment to sustainable development – together, we aim to ramp up lithium production with innovation and responsible mining practices,” said Amanda Hall, Founder and CEO of Summit Nanotech. “We are very confident in the differentiated ability of Summit’s technology to unlock this and other resources, effectively and more economically than any other DLE technology.”
