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<p>Lithium is a critical material for current and future battery technologies. Commercial production primarily relies on hard rock deposits (e.g., in Australia, China, Zimbabwe) and brines (e.g., in Chile, Argentina). This study evaluates the economic viability of lithium extraction from clay, the third largest lithium resource globally, by analyzing seven proposed projects employing three different extraction technologies: Hydrochloric acid leaching, sulfuric acid leaching, and sulfate salt roasting. We benchmark levelized production costs for clay extraction against global brine and hard rock extraction operations and projects (4996-5580 USD t<sup>−1</sup> LCE). Our findings indicate that clay-based lithium extraction can be between 20% and 100% more expensive than global averages, depending on extraction technology and process flow (6429-10,875 USD t<sup>−1</sup> LCE). However, we propose pathways that can improve cost-competitiveness relative to conventional sources by up to 50%. We emphasize that these are modeled optimization pathways derived from feasibility-stage data and have not yet been demonstrated at commercial scale.</p>

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Optimization of processing costs could improve the cost-competitiveness of lithium extraction from clay relative to conventional sources of brines and hard rock ores

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月3日

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  • Jannis Wesselkaemper,
  • Thomas P. Hendrickson,
  • Sarah J. Smith,
  • Prakash Rao,
  • Andrew Z. Haddad

摘要

Lithium is a critical material for current and future battery technologies. Commercial production primarily relies on hard rock deposits (e.g., in Australia, China, Zimbabwe) and brines (e.g., in Chile, Argentina). This study evaluates the economic viability of lithium extraction from clay, the third largest lithium resource globally, by analyzing seven proposed projects employing three different extraction technologies: Hydrochloric acid leaching, sulfuric acid leaching, and sulfate salt roasting. We benchmark levelized production costs for clay extraction against global brine and hard rock extraction operations and projects (4996-5580 USD t−1 LCE). Our findings indicate that clay-based lithium extraction can be between 20% and 100% more expensive than global averages, depending on extraction technology and process flow (6429-10,875 USD t−1 LCE). However, we propose pathways that can improve cost-competitiveness relative to conventional sources by up to 50%. We emphasize that these are modeled optimization pathways derived from feasibility-stage data and have not yet been demonstrated at commercial scale.