Canada's Project Aurora Lithium Refining Demonstration Plant Completes Commissioning and Transitions to Continuous Operation

en.Wedoany.com Reported - EMP Metals announced that the Project Aurora lithium refining demonstration plant, located in the Viewfield project area in Saskatchewan, Canada, has completed commissioning and officially transitioned to full-time operation. The facility has now established a complete closed loop from brine extraction at production wells, through continuous processing, to waste brine reinjection, and can directly process field-produced brine.

Project Aurora uses a continuous-flow lithium refining process with a designed raw brine processing capacity of 10 cubic meters per day. Production brine is delivered directly from the production wells to the demonstration unit, and after processing, the waste brine is returned to designated underground formations through the reinjection system. EMP Metals and its technology partner Saltworks Technologies are currently carrying out the next phase of work focused on stable system operation, process parameter optimization, and long-term operational data collection.

The demonstration plant adopts Saltworks' second-generation direct lithium extraction technology route. Saltworks previously disclosed that the horizontal lithium wells connected to the project can access brine resources with lithium concentrations exceeding 200 mg/L, and the unit will also be used to verify over the long term the continuous operation capability of direct lithium extraction, refining, and subsequent lithium chemical production stages. Saltworks will continue to participate in Aurora's long-term demonstration and process optimization.

Construction of the project was completed in August of this year, when the demonstration plant had already been directly connected to the production wells and waste brine reinjection wells, overall commissioning was approximately 50% complete, and multiple processing systems had begun testing with field brine. With all commissioning now complete, the project phase has shifted from construction and system integration testing to continuous demonstration operation.

EMP Metals plans to use the operational data from this phase to improve the engineering design, process parameters, and economic assessment of subsequent commercial units. The company previously disclosed that its future modular commercial facility targets annual lithium product output of more than 3,000 tonnes, with the initial commercial module planned at approximately 1,500–3,000 tonnes per year, and specific construction still depending on demonstration operation results, engineering design, and subsequent financing arrangements.