Direct lithium extraction (DLE) projects will only achieve cashflow if flowsheets become simpler and early engineering is more disciplined, delegates heard on day two of the UK Direct Lithium Extraction Summit in Slough this week.
Investors still focus on the reinjection stage, treating it as the main project risk, even when extraction workstreams perform well, UK developer Weardale Lithium's chief executive Stewart Dickson said.
That focus pushes developers into a familiar dilemma. Either compress engineering schedules to hit funding windows — the "compress and repent later" approach that risks redesign downstream — or slow development to prove out the flowsheet before seeking capital, he said.
This caution persists, even though lithium projects carry a far heavier front end metallurgical load than gold or copper projects, Dickson added.
He also pointed to a mismatch between perceived and actual funding appetite, in that the UK and EU sit in the lowest formal risk bracket, yet capital flows readily into regions assumed to be less stable.
Local resistance adds another drag, although public pushback has long shaped project pacing across Europe. These factors make a clear, early flowsheet essential, especially at a demonstration scale, Dickson said.
The case for non-integrated Li projects
A similar point was made from the refining end of the chain by Gemma Cooper, chief commercial officer at UK lithium refinery project Tees Valley Lithium. Many upstream developers attempt too many steps at once, aiming for battery-grade output from the start and carrying extraction, first stage refining and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) qualification risk in a single project team, she said.
This has resulted in missed milestones and capital intensity that, in some cases, has climbed towards $100,000/t, rather than the roughly $10,000/t global average.
A split model — upstream firms producing a technical grade carbonate and passing material to a specialist refiner — cuts risk and shortens timelines, Cooper said. Tees Valley Lithium has secured trader feedstock arrangements and early UK supply partnerships, giving the refinery flexibility while upstream firms avoid building every process block themselves.
And qualification does not need to run for several years, Cooper said, adding that some OEMs complete approvals in around six months, when volumes and specifications are stable.
Producers weigh increasing DLE technology options
With many UK projects still at the pilot or pre-pilot stage, brine chemistry remains the first constraint. Absorption systems are currently the most widely deployed DLE route, but they tend to use more water and energy, and their performance drops when brine chemistry shifts.
These limits are driving interest in more selective membrane or electrochemical systems, research firm IDTechEx's tech analyst Daniel Parr said. Although none will perform reliably without tight pre-treatment and thorough sampling.
One electrochemical route came from Australian lithium tech developer ElectraLith. The company's container-based system removes most water and reagent needs and delivers hydroxide directly, chief executive Charlie McGill said, helping place the approach at the low end of cost curves when modelled on brines tested so far.
Upcoming pilot units in Western Australia, the Lithium Triangle and the UK will show how far this process can simplify the final flowsheet, McGill said.
Flowsheet remains defining bottleneck
Flowsheet design itself remains the defining bottleneck. Most pilot failures stem not from a weak extraction step, but from poor integration between pre-treatment, extraction and polishing stages, ILiAD Technologies' commercial director Esteban Soto said. Failure often occurs because developers combine DLE packages that were never designed to run together.
The only solid route through that challenge is sampling, according to Elena Gil Aunon, water manager at lithium refining partner Worley. Early samples and bench scale work are needed to catch silica, scaling and fouling risks that can undermine both DLE units and downstream membranes, Gil Aunon said.
