Wave Lithium, a subsidiary of the New Wave holding company, is working on a kind of disruptive microwave based tech to refine lithium in Brazil, and yeah basically try to cut production costs by 50% versus Chinese refineries.
The whole project wants to turn spodumene, a lithium rich mineral, into battery grade lithium hydroxide and also carbonate. Right now, China controls about 94% of the worldwide lithium refining market, and it keeps sort of a technological monopoly, so Brazil is now trying to push back.
MICROWAVE INNOVATION
The company is investing 25 million reais ( about $4.3 million) in a pilot plant planned to open in September. The site will make use of a rather unique microwave-driven decrepitation and sulfation process that was developed in Rio de Janeiro.
As Gustavo Emina CEO of New Wave told Estadão, this tech may bring refining costs down to roughly $1,800 per ton, way under the present Chinese average which sits near $6,000 per ton.
SCALING UP IN THE "LITHIUM VALE"
By 2027 Wave Lithium is planning to roll out an industrial scale plant in Minas Gerais, in the Jequitinhonha Valley, a place people often call the “Lithium Vale” for convenience, but you know, sort of. The project is supposed to reach about 250,000 tons per year of concentrate, and in practice it should turn into something like 30,000 tons or more of lithium carbonate equivalent, also known as LCE.
In the meantime, the region already has big names around it, like Sigma Lithium (SGML.V) and Companhia Brasileira do Lítio (CBL). So Wave Lithium ends up with this strategic closeness to raw inputs, rather than going far and spending extra time.
BACKED BY GLOBAL GIANTS
New Wave is kind of controlled by Lorinvest, which is the investment firm of the Lorentzen family. The holding company recently raised about $120 million, in a round that was led by Orion Resource Partners, a global fund focused on strategic metals and the energy transition… Other backers also showed up, like Just Climate, a company founded by Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management.
The same company then also got a 221-million-reais credit line from Brazil’s state development bank, BNDES, to help with its innovation projects, including low-carbon metal output that comes from mining waste.
