Vancouver, British Columbia – (June 19, 2017) – E3 METALS CORP. (TSX.V: ETMC.H) (the “Company” or “E3 Metals”) is pleased to announce that it has signed a collaboration agreement with the University of Alberta (the “U of A”) for the purpose of developing lithium extraction process technology. The goal of this collaboration is to develop a cost-effective technology to extract lithium from brines, specifically the lithium-enriched Petro-Brines present within the company’s permit areas. E3 Metals will be working directly with Dr. Daniel Alessi, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Salman Safari, Postdoctoral Fellow.
Dr. Alessi is an Assistant Professor of geochemistry in the Faculty of Science at the U of A and is the Encana Chair in Water Resources. After completing his PhD at the University of Notre Dame in geochemistry, Dr. Alessi worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in the field of environmental microbiology, and then joined the University of Alberta in 2013. The Alessi Laboratory at the U of A investigates several important aspects of applied geochemistry to reduce risk and improve costs in environmental remediation and hydraulic fracturing. Now, through this collaboration, lithium extraction will be added to the impressive list of endeavors at the Alessi Laboratory.
Dr. Alessi is an expert in surface chemistry and remediation, having published more than 30-refereed papers in these research areas. His laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation to characterize brine metals chemistry. In addition to overseeing the project, Dr. Alessi will advise the team on developing lithium extraction methods and on the environmental footprint the extraction processes that are investigated.
Dr. Safari completed his PhD in chemical engineering at McGill University in 2015 and following that he worked for a chemical company as an industrial postdoctoral for almost a year. He joined the Alessi group as a postdoctoral fellow in October 2016 and since then he has been working on waste remediation and water treatment projects. His research interests lie in areas of water treatment, clean technologies, innovative natural products, and colloidal chemistry, in which he has published 6 journal papers and has made more than 20 conference contributions.
Dr. Safari’s research skills in water treatment, along with his engineering expertise, will be invaluable as Dr. Safari leads the Alessi team to gain a better understanding of the petro-brine chemistry and to devise an optimized, selective lithium extraction process compatible with E3 Metals’ brine and environment.
The goals of this collaboration involve research and development in both pre-treatment and direct lithium extraction methods. As such, the U of A aim’s to develop a technology capable of direct lithium extraction without the requirement of pre-treatment of the brine, or a method that requires only minimal pre-treatment. In parallel, they will research and develop methods of pre-treating water for the filtration and precipitation of Calcium and Magnesium. Through these efforts, they aim to develop a clean lithium extraction technology that improves extraction efficiency, minimizes costs and improves lithium recovery from brines. The Alessi lab has already begun the initial research potion of the work and plans to initiate the testing with some of the first brine samples collected from our permit areas.
Applications for funding are being sought with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
E3 Metals looks forward to a productive collaboration with the University of Alberta, and is grateful to NSERC for helping to make this collaboration possible.