Nestled in a series of unassuming industrial buildings in Delta, B.C., among companies specializing in plumbing supplies, ladders and fitness equipment, sits North America’s first electrochemical lithium refining facility.
It’s an unlikely location for Canada to challenge China’s hegemonic control of the refining of lithium, a critical mineral whose supply chains have emerged as a key concern from the White House to Ottawa and beyond.
Mangrove Lithium CEO and founder Saad Dara joked that the facility is like a “clown building,” as he conducted a private tour.
“It just keeps going,” he said over the noise of machinery, as he pointed to areas of the facility, including the company’s research and development lab.
The company held an official ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, but Dara said it had been a “long journey” to get to this point.
He said the idea began as a “one-man operation” and his own thesis project in 2013, which he spun into a company in 2018 and has been working to “commercialize the technology ever since.”
There are now about 75 employees at the facility, Dara said.
“We’ve been working on the design and construction of this first-of-a-kind plant where we’ve taken the work that we’ve done from our piloting operations and converted those into a fully operational facility,” Dara said.
“We anticipate production of first natural-grade materials over the summer and into the fall, and really getting to a point where the technology is fully commercialized.”
Trade tensions
It comes as countries look to secure supply chains amid rising trade tensions, and growing demand for key metals like copper, nickel and lithium, needed for priorities like electrification and defence.
The federal government has designated lithium as a critical mineral because of its importance in battery production and the renewable energy transition. Canada has two mines in Manitoba and Quebec.
But, Dara said, about 75 per cent of the world’s lithium is mined in South America and Australia, and about 75 per cent of it is refined in China — including most of the lithium extracted in Canada.
The Alberta government says our province could be sitting on one of the largest lithium resources in the world, with a new report from the Alberta Geological Survey estimating the deposits at 80 million tonnes. Brendan Bishop, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, has extensively studied lithium resources in Western Canada.
“The lithium market is six segments. There’s mining, refining, active materials, battery assembly, EV assembly, and then recycling,” he said, noting China has “all six segments.”
China began investing about 15 years ago, he said, which is why it is so far ahead.
While Canada produces lithium, it does not have EV assembly, active materials or recycling, Dara…
Read More: North America’s 1st electrochemical lithium refining facility opens in B.C.
