Amid ongoing supply chain issues and increasingly urgent calls to develop a domestic EV battery market, one Alberta company is demonstrating that the province has what it takes to build lithium batteries right here at home.

In June, E3 Lithium completed a pilot project with technology partner Pure Lithium to create a pouch battery using lithium extracted from Alberta brine fields in the Leduc Formation.

For Chris Doornbos, chief executive officer of E3 Lithium, the pilot represents an exciting proof-of-concept that advances its Clearwater Project, which is partially funded by Imperial Oil Limited. Imperial’s discovery of crude oil at Leduc No. 1 in 1947 transformed Alberta’s economy. Of little economic interest at the time was Leduc’s extensive underground pool of lithium-rich brine, containing a key element that is now helping to power the transportation of the future.

The battery manufactured last month is more than a first for Alberta — it’s also the first battery produced by Pure Lithium from lithium concentrates not produced in a laboratory.

E3 is currently ramping up a larger-scale pilot plant at Clearwater as it drills the province’s first lithium wells to demonstrate that its advanced direct lithium extraction technology, employing a proprietary sorbent, will work at a commercial scale. Employing a small footprint, the plant would employ a closed-loop system to bring brine to the surface, extract lithium and then re-inject it into the brine pool within a few hours.

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