Khaled Al-Mudaifer, Saudi Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, revealed today, Tuesday, the Kingdom’s success in extracting lithium from brine samples from the fields of the giant national oil company Aramco, and plans to launch a pilot commercial program for direct extraction soon.
Khaled Al-Mudaifer told Reuters that Lithium Infinity, also known as Lihtech, a startup launched by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, will lead the extraction project in cooperation with Aramco and the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden).
He added, “They extract lithium using new technology that they developed at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and they are moving quickly in this regard.”
Al-Mudaifer continued, “They are preparing for a pilot commercial project in the oil fields so that the brine solutions – coming out of the fields – will continuously feed the pilot commercial project.”
Lithium is a key component in batteries for electric cars, laptop computers and smartphones.
Other oil companies, including ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum, intend to benefit from new technology to extract lithium from brine in oil fields, at a time when the world seeks to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Al-Mudaifer said that the cost of extracting lithium from salt water in oil fields is higher than the traditional method of extraction from natural salt flats, but he expected that the project would become commercially viable soon if lithium prices rose.
Saudi Arabia, whose economy has depended on oil for decades, has spent billions of dollars seeking to become a center for the electric car industry.
