Vice Minister says Saudi Arabia has extracted lithium in oilfield runoffs

 

Saudi Arabia has successfully recovered lithium from samples of brine from the oilfields of national giant Aramco and plans to launch soon a commercial pilot program for direct extraction, said the Saudi vice-minister for mining affairs on Tuesday.

 

Khalid al-Mudaifer, CEO of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology's Lihytech start-up, said that Saudi mining companies Ma'aden and Aramco will be collaborating with Lithium Infinity to lead the extraction project.

 

He said, "They are extracting Lithium through their new technology that they developed at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and are in an accelerated development."

 

"They are building a commercial-pilot at the oilfields." The brines from the oil fields will be fed into the commercial pilot continuously," said Al-Mudaifer.

 

Lithium is an important component of batteries for electric cars, laptops and smartphones. Previously, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia's and the United Arab Emirates’ national oil companies were planning to extract the metal from oil runoffs.

 

Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum and other oil companies plan to use emerging technologies to remove lithium from brine as the world moves away from fossil fuels.

 

The vice minister stated that although the cost to extract lithium from brine runoffs in oil fields was higher than the conventional method of salt flat extraction, he added that if the lithium price grew then the project could soon become commercially viable.

 

Aramco KAUST and Ma'aden didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Ma'aden, which is owned in majority by the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom, has not responded to requests for comment.

 

Saudi Arabia has spent billions to become a hub for electric vehicles as part of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's efforts to find new sources of wealth. 

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