Boardwalk is a lithium-brine project owned 100% by Canada-based LithiumBank Resources. The project is located in west-central Alberta, Canada.
The project will include a plant that will utilise Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology to produce commercial battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate from the brine.
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LithiumBank filed a technical report on the project in December 2022, followed by a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in June 2023.
An updated PEA of the mine was published in February 2024. As per the report, the project would produce 34,005 tonnes per annum (tpa) of battery-grade Lithium Hydroxide Monohydrate (LHM) over a period of 20 years.
Boardwalk Project Location
The Boardwalk Project is located directly west and south of Valleyview Town in west-central Alberta, Canada.
The site is 270km northwest of the Edmonton City and approximately 85km east of the Grande Prairie City.
The project consists of 26 combined Brine-Hosted Mineral Licences and Rock-Hosted Mineral Permits covering a total of 170,424 hectares (ha).
The project is accessible via highways, secondary one- or two-lane all-weather roads, and air.
Geology and Mineralisation
The Boardwalk Project mineral permits/licences encompass the Sturgeon Lake Reef Complex and Late Devonian Leduc Formation reservoir, or brine aquifer.
The property is located mostly on the Chinchaga Terrane and near the centre of Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) south centre located south of the Peace River Arch (PRA).
The PEA report focused on the aquifer system located in the Late Devonian (Frasnian) dolomitized reef structure of the Woodbend Group and Leduc Formation overlying the Beaverhill Lake Group carbonates.
Historical drilling and seismic data indicated that the lithium content in the Leduc Formation aquifer is homogeneous with the lithium content present in the investigated reservoir portions of the nearly 50km long reef complex.
The approximately 1,000km2 Sturgeon Lake Reef structure is located over Township 69 Range 23W5M.
The top of the Beaverhill Lake Group at the Boardwalk Property ranges from 1,900m above sea level (m asl) in the northeastern to -2,750 m asl in the southwestern corner.
Lithium mineralisation occurs within the Devonian Leduc Formation aquifer in solution form within the brine.
On average, crustal abundance of lithium is approximately 17-20 ppm with higher occurrences in igneous (28-30 ppm) and sedimentary rocks.
Boardwalk Project Mineral Resource Estimate
The Boardwalk Lithium Brine Project is estimated to have 393,000 tonnes of Indicated Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) at a grade of 71.6 mg/L.
Inferred LCE stands at 5.8 million tonnes at 68.0 mg/L.
Mining and Processing
The in-situ resource of lithium is found as brine water contained within the Leduc Formation.
The production method will involve using deep vertical or deviated wells to produce brine rich in lithium. The lithium-rich brine will be then transported to the Central Processing Facility (CPF) for further processing.
According to the PEA, the Boardwalk project is expected to produce at a rate of 250,000m3/d of total lithium from 50 production wells over 20 years.
The depleted brine will be disposed to the Leduc Formation through injection wells. The injection wells will be located at a distance from the production wells.
Overall, the lithium brine project may include up to 23 multi-well pads to minimise surface footprint.
The lithium processing plant has a nameplate production capacity of approximately 34,299tpa of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate by processing a throughput of 250,000 m3/d at an average concentration of 70.1 mg/L.
LithiumBank plans to use Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology to improve recovery, lower power consumption, and reduce project capex.
Lithium is expected to be extracted using DLE ion exchange technology after removal of the dissolved H2S. After removing precipitated impurities from the eluate, lithium concentrate will be polished and then it will undergo a lithium sulphate electrochemical process to obtain lithium hydroxide.
The battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrates will be produced by two crystallisation stages, and then it will be drying, and packaging.
Lithium recovery from the plant is estimated to be approximately 98%.
Boardwalk Lithium Brine Project Infrastructure
The main infrastructure of the project comprises well pads and associated subsurface facilities, surface brine and injection supply facilities, a Central Processing Facility, and other utilities.
Each production wellhead will pump approximately 5,000m3/d of brine. The production piping connecting the wellheads and CPF will be approximately 80km long.
The CPF will cover approximately 210,000m2 area.
The plant will need approximately 23,070 Giga Joule per day (GJ/d) of fuel for two LM6000 PF+ gas turbines. The natural gas will be supplied by the Nova Gas Transmission (NGTL) system.
NGTL will need to construct a metre station, a hot tap, and pressure regulation and associated appurtenances for gas supply.
The direct connect pipeline will be approximately 10km long and is expected to feature a 12-inch-high carbon steel pipe with a Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP) of around 6,200kPa.
Boardwalk project plant will require approximately 167MW of power. The power will be supplied by Alberta Electrical System Operation (AESO) Electrical Grid and onsite power generation facility.
The onsite power facility will comprise two gas turbines which are expected to be GE LM6000 PF+ aeroderivative gas-fired turbines. Each turbine will have a power generating capacity of 13.8kV.
The associated facilities will include a steam turbine, a balance of plant (feed pumps, tanks etc.), and Once Through Steam Generators (OTSGs).
Boardwalk Contractors
The 2024 PEA of the project was prepared by multidisciplinary management, engineering and development consultancy Hatch, with support from APEX Geoscience, Fluid Domains, GLJ, Hydrogeological Consultants, Scott Energy, and Go2Lithium.
ZS2 Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with LithiumBank in April 2023 to deploy their carbon dioxide Direct-Air-Capture (DAC) technology at Boardwalk Lithium Brine Project.
In April 2023, LithiumBank signed a MoU with Invest Alberta for the development of a commercial lithium production facility at the project location.
The LM6000 PF+ aeroderivative gas-fired turbines will be provided by General Electric (GE), while The cDLE technology will be delivered by Go2Lithium.
In August 2024, global technology company SLB won a contract to provide detailed reservoir modelling of the site to support updating the resource estimate at the Boardwalk lithium brine project.
