EnergySource Minerals (ESM) announced a contract with Ford Motor Company for the supply of lithium.
As an emerging leader in the production of sustainably produced lithium, a critical component used in the production of cathodes, ESM will supply Ford with lithium hydroxide produced at ESM'S Project ATLiS in Imperial Valley, California.
"We are delighted to announce this contract with Ford Motor Company," said Eric Spomer, CEO of ESM. "The domestic supply chain for EVs in the United States is taking shape, literally from the ground up. Ford is embracing a domestic, sustainable standard for EV manufacturing, and we are proud to play a part in building America's clean energy supply chain."
Using just a fraction of the carbon, water, and land footprint of any other operation in the world, Project ATLiS aims to set a new standard in sustainable lithium production. The project will maximize lithium output in a closed-loop environment with the goal of reducing time, cost, and environmental impact when compared to other alternative approaches.
The operation will feature ESM's breakthrough ILiAD technology platform, which separates lithium from an underlying geothermal brine resource.
"With our flexible ILiAD platform we look forward to supplying lithium to manufacturers like Ford. Moreover, by deploying our ILiAD technology to brine resources across the world, we will enable an additional supply of sustainably produced lithium more broadly," added Spomer.
ILiAD will efficiently process lithium from lithium-bearing brine resources, including the geothermal brine resource in the Salton Sea Geothermal Resource Area. The innovation will allow ATLiS to connect to an existing operational geothermal power facility and remove the lithium from the brine, after it's been used to generate geothermal power.
The ILiAD technology will dramatically reduce the water footprint of alternative approaches, will not consume reagents, will demonstrate order-of-magnitude longer operating life and achieve higher lithium recovery rates than others to date.
Project ATLiS in California's Salton Sea is expected to produce approximately 20,000 metric tons of lithium annually, which will quadruple the current U.S. supply of domestic lithium and is enough material to build around 500,000 EVs for the auto industry per year
