Industry typology
1st transformation
Hydrometallurgy
Mining
Product typology
Lithium
Groups
Certifications
Annual revenues
Company Headcount
APE
Sustainable metals for batteries serving the energy transition
The Ensorcia Group was founded in 2016 to develop a sustainable battery metals supply chain by a group of energy executives who shared the vision that a global sustainable energy transition was inevitable.
Convinced that lithium was the environmentally friendly battery metal of the future, Ensorcia began acquiring lithium resources in South America and investing in cutting-edge extraction technologies, with the goal of developing a global supply chain from resources to finished products for the electric battery market.
The Ensorcia Group uses a cost-effective and resource-efficient process that provides an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional lithium extraction methods and a time-efficient response to the growing demand for lithium driven by the expanding electric car market.
Ensorcia uses IBAT's revolutionary DLE lithium extraction technology, which produces virtually no chemicals, no wasted water and no solid waste.
The DLE plant's characteristics, logistics optimization and conversion technology lead to a low carbon footprint compared to traditional lithium extraction from brines and spodumenes.
Mobile lithium extraction process
IBAT mobile technology offers major advantages for securing and accelerating its deployment:
- Pre-built and factory tested before deployment
- Can be easily deployed in isolated locations, often with difficult access such as in a high altitude environment
- Can be deployed with a phased expansion program over time allowing for a quick start before full resources are developed
The independent modular design provides redundancy, which minimizes downtime, allowing continuous production during maintenance.
The high characteristics of IBAT DLE technology are brine independent, allowing it to operate with low or high lithium concentration and a wide range of impurities, whereas DLE technologies are often designed for a given type of brine.
Additionally, its modular concept allows for easy configuration adjustment to best suit brine characteristics, such as brine pre-cleaning for oilfield brines.
IBAT technology licensed from Ensorcia Group is the only third-party modular DLE proven on a commercial scale, starting in 2023.
The certification was processed in August 2022 by the independent expert SLR Consultants on the first standard-sized mobile unit (5,6 kTPA LCA / 1800 ppm) built with the financial support of the Ensorcia Group (click to download the summary of the performance review of the IBAT modular direct lithium extraction plant).
In the meantime, IBAT has further improved the technology, with a new third-party verification confirming a lithium extraction rate of 95% (compared to 20/40% with the traditional process) and more than 98% potential reinjection of clean brine.