Kindersley Lithium Project is located in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan near the town of Kindersley. The project is owned and operated by Alberta-headquartered lithium resource company Grounded Lithium (GLC).
In July 2023, the company announced the results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the first phase of the project that seeks to produce 11,000 tonnes per year (tpa) of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) over 20 years.
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In Phase I, 24 of GLC’s 300 sections of lithium rights will be developed. Initial capital investment for the development was estimated to be $335m, including $45m for contingencies.
Kindersley is expected to start production in 2027.
Kindersley Lithium Project Location
The Kindersley Lithium Project is located in the province of Saskatchewan in Canada, with the western edge of the property situated 34km west of the town of Kindersley.
The entire KLP includes an area of around 5,690km2.
The Phase I Development Area will encompass approximately 146km2. There are parts of land in Phase I that GLC does not own, however, the development will be conducted in company owned areas.
The average elevation in the area is around 683m above sea level.
The town of Kindersley is situated adjacent to Saskatchewan Primary Weight Highway (Hwy) Nos. 7 and 21.
Geology and Mineral Resource Estimate
GLC will primarily target the Devonian-aged Duperow formation for lithium enriched brines. The depositional and reservoir attributes of the formation will enable direct lithium extraction (DLE). It has a gross thickness of more than 200m.
In the formation, the KLP has the shallowest known accumulation of lithium-enriched brines. Additionally, the brines in the project area are free from hydrocarbons, including sour gas.
According to a March 2023 assessment, the Kindersley Lithium Project’s Inferred Mineral Resources estimate is around 10.57 billion cubic metres or 66.48 billion barrels (bbl) of brine, with an average associated lithium concentration of 74.0mgl.
The total Inferred Mineral Resources for the entire KLP is estimated to be 782,182 tonnes of elemental lithium, or 4.1 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (4.7 million tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate).
The KLP Phase 1 Development Area is said to host around 13% of the total in-place resource volume.
Lithium Extraction and Processing
Brine is a highly concentrated solution of salt and water with more than 100,000 parts per million (ppm) of total dissolved solids (TDS). It is extracted from underground aquifers penetrated by vertical, deviated, or horizontal wellbores.
The Kindersley Lithium Project will see the use of an unconventional, subsurface, mining operation similar to an oil and gas development.
GLC plans to utilise direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology to produce battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM).
The first phase development will include 24 brine production wells which will extract lithium enriched brines (70.0 – 81.0 mg/L) from the Duperow formation across the north-western portion of the project.
These individual wells will produce approximately 3,050m3/day each on an average.
The produced fluids in the form of brines will then be transported to a centralised processing facility (CPF) through a network of underground pipelines.
The DLE process, which will be used to process brines, has demonstrated a lithium recovery of 97%.
Raw lithium chloride brine extracted via the DLE process will undergo further polishing using IX technology to remove divalent and other ionic contaminants.
The product will then pass through the process of carbonation, further conversion, ion-exchange, and crystallisation to form the final lithium hydroxide monohydrate.
The produced lithium hydroxide monohydrate is planned to be sent to manufacturers via rail to seaports in Vancouver for export to battery manufacturers worldwide.
After the extraction of lithium, the depleted brines will be pumped from the CPF through an independent network of underground disposal pipelines to six individual disposal wells.
Infrastructure
The KLP project is near existing infrastructure including high-grade paved roads, a three-phase power grid, natural gas, and rail.
The project will also feature new infrastructure to support new wellbores and associated production facilities.
It will receive power from Saskatchewan Power Corporation’s (SaskPower) existing power grid network.
Substations and transmission lines will be installed to connect project to the grid.
Contractors Involved
The PEA for Kindersley Lithium Project – Phase 1 was prepared by Sproule Associates, Grey Owl Engineering, Codeco – Vanoco Engineering, Tundra Engineering, and Fracture Modeling.
In May 2023, Koch Technology Solutions Limited (KTS), a Koch Engineered Solutions unit, was selected by Grounded Lithium as the lithium extraction provider.
As agreed, KTS will provide its Li-Pro technology under an appropriately staged evaluation programme.
The PEA was also based on the implementation of KTS’ lithium extraction technology.
