Lithium Universe up on silver extraction IP as solar recycling pivot grows

Lithium Universe (ASX:LU7) has popped over +20% on low volumes in afternoon trades as the company acquires the rights to a silver extraction technology.

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That tech underpins what is for the company, all cards in order, a lifeline away from the lithium thematic. While we saw CATL shut down a mine for three months on Monday, LU7 – and other early-stage lithium companies, or those who are now stranded – missed out.

But for some time now, the company has had its eye on silver, a commodity having a solid run in recent history as it tracks the price of gold, and therefore, attracts rotation.

And that’s got the company looking at solar panel recycling. Solar panels, fun fact, contain small amounts of silver in the form of silver paste, which is used in traditional panels because silver is actually more conductive than copper.

And while the amounts of silver in each panel are small, Australia is a world-leader in solar panel uptake. According to a spokesperson for the Australian Smart Energy Council, if you add up all the silver in panels sitting on rooftops all around the country, you’re looking at a resource reflecting what could be among the country’s largest silver mines.

That might be a statement too simple to swallow without raising an eyebrow, of course. The costs of recycling provide a very different economic universe. But to that end, the company is hopeful.

The tech it has picked up actually comes from Macquarie University, with whom Lithium Universe is working on its panel recycling hopes to reclaim silver.

The tech itself uses an “electrochemical low-voltage jet” to extract silver, and then to further refine that first-stage byproduct until you’re left with pure silver, sans traces of aluminium.

The company also noted on Tuesday that it wouldn’t damage a silicon microchip, either.

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“A narrow stream of dilute nitric acid is delivered through a chemically inert nozzle positioned close to the wafer,” the company explained in its disclosure. “With a low applied voltage of about 5V across the contacts, the silver undergoes anodic oxidation to form soluble [silver] ions, which dissolve into the electrolyte.”

LU7 last traded at 0.9cps.

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