The topic of lithium in the context of geothermal brine is seeing increasing attention and spread. A new project in the state of New Mexico in the U.S. is kicking off.
Parkway Minerals (ASX:PWN), owner of the New Mexico Lithium Project (NMLP) located approximately 10km north of the Cyrq Energy owned Bruce Levy (formerly Lightning Dock) Geothermal power plant, is looking to drill-test this exciting project in coming months.
Parkway believes the large NMLP project which covers 40km2 of a central playa at the low point of a 6,000km2 drainage basin, hosts a significant lithium resource, as the regional heat flow, is likely to have leached lithium from source rocks and volcanic ash, and accumulated the soluble lithium in trapped brines.
Parkway’s excitement in the project stems from the expectation that any trapped brines would be relatively warm, enabling direct processing with Parkway’s aMES brine processing technology, therefore eliminating the requirement for evaporation ponds. This shouldn’t be of any surprise, given the origins of the aMES technology go back a decade to mineral recovery from geothermal projects. We are of course seeing other exciting opportunities for recovering lithium from brines, including in the Salton Sea and in Europe.
In the case of the New Mexico Lithium Project, drilling is much shallower and therefore significantly cheaper (in the hundred thousand dollar, not multi-million dollar range). Whilst Parkway is relatively well-funded, it is seeking a JV partner to fund inexpensive shallow drill-testing of the project, in coming months
