en.Wedoany.com Reported - Canadian critical mineral and battery metals company Litus announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Taiwan's UWin Nanotech Co. Ltd., under which the two parties will collaborate on critical mineral recycling.
UWin Nanotech has been an Apple-certified recycling supplier since 2020, specializing in hydrometallurgical technology, with operations spanning precious metal recovery, electronic waste and lithium-ion battery recycling, air pollution treatment, and industrial applications.
According to Litus, the MOU establishes the intent of both parties to work together in good faith on potential collaboration, focusing on the selective extraction, separation, recovery, and purification of cobalt, lithium, nickel, and other valuable elements from "recycled sources." The collaboration will also explore the use of Litus's proprietary nanomaterial composites and advanced separation processes, with applications including battery recycling, as well as potentially other critical minerals and rare earth elements.
Litus describes its flagship technology, Litus LiNC, as a patented, one-step direct lithium extraction platform designed to economically recover lithium from both low and high concentration brines previously considered uneconomical. The technology is driven by Litus nanocomposites, designed and manufactured at Litus's Calgary facility, featuring high lithium selectivity, low energy consumption, reduced chemical consumption, minimal pre-treatment requirements, modular and field-proven deployment capabilities, and the ability to recover from various sources such as oilfield produced water and geothermal brines.
Litus stated that its Calgary nanocomposite manufacturing facility plays a central role in its commercialization strategy, ensuring the supply of proprietary materials and supporting continuous optimization for different feedstocks and operating environments.
"This MOU reflects the growing global demand for advanced processing technologies that can efficiently and selectively recover lithium and other valuable materials with a smaller environmental footprint," said Ghada Nafie, Founder and CEO of Litus. "By combining Litus's nanotechnology platform with UWin's hydrometallurgical expertise, we see significant potential to accelerate the development of a scalable, circular critical mineral supply chain."
Litus noted that the MOU also supports its broader strategy of integrating lithium extraction and lithium recycling through advanced materials science. Its ReLiGN battery recycling platform, designed to recover battery-grade lithium from spent batteries, is developed by the same team behind the Litus nanotechnology platform. It utilizes proprietary nanocomposites to achieve high-purity, high-selectivity lithium recovery, offering safe, rapid, and scalable processing capabilities, ultra-low energy consumption, low capital requirements, "near-zero" hazardous waste discharge, and a closed-loop recycling pathway for the battery ecosystem.
"End-of-life batteries are not waste; they are a treasure trove of high-value materials," Nafie stated. "ReLiGN enables us to recover lithium to battery-grade specifications, while helping OEMs, EV manufacturers, energy storage providers, and battery producers reduce waste and enhance supply chain resilience."
Under the MOU, Litus and UWin plan to explore collaboration in several areas, including evaluating the feasibility of Litus nanomaterials for selectively separating lithium and other valuable components from different sources, extending separation applications to other valuable materials and rare earth elements, optimizing material performance for different compositions and feedstocks, assessing technical feasibility and commercial economics across various sources, exchanging technical expertise, data, and process knowledge to evaluate commercial viability, and discussing potential future definitive agreements involving scale-up, licensing, distribution, or joint venture opportunities.
Litus emphasized that the MOU provides a framework for further technical and commercial discussions between the two parties.
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