- Lithium explorer Lake Resources (LKE) is in league with Bill Gates’ billion-dollar investment fund through its tech partner, Lilac Solutions
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures has invested $30 million into Lilac to support its lithium extraction technology
- The tech allows for faster, cheaper, and more scalable lithium extraction from brine resources
- The investment from Breakthrough Energy is a vote of confidence for both Lilac’s tech and Lake’s ability to choose strategic partners
- Lake has been working with Lilac to produce high-purity lithium from its Kachi Lithium Brine Project in Argentina
- Investors seem pleased with the indirect backing from Breakthrough Energy, with Lake shares gaining over 30 per cent today to 4.7 cents each
Lithium explorer Lake Resources (LKE) is brushing shoulders with some of the biggest players in the investment game through its tech partner, Lilac Solutions.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a billion-dollar fund created to support clean energy companies and helmed by Bill Gates, has invested US$20 million (roughly A$30 million) into California-based Lilac in a round of Series A funding.
Other names on Breakthrough Energy’s investor list include Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and Richard Branson.
The tech which garnered the attention of such high-profile investors is Lilac’s lithium extraction method, which is advertised as a cheaper, faster, and more scalable method of extracting the lucrative metal from brine resources than conventional methods.
According to Lilac, the current conventional process requires producers to extract lithium from large brine evaporation ponds that are expensive to build, slow to startup, and vulnerable to weather changes. Lilac’s solution uses “ion exchange beads” to speed up this process while maintaining the purity of the lithium.
So, where does Lake fit into all this?
While the cash from the Breakthrough Energy investment will hit Lilac’s pockets instead of Lake’s, the two companies have been working closely to produce high-purity lithium from Lake’s Kachi Lithium Brine Project in Argentina.
As Lake’s technology partner, Lilac has helped lake produce 99.9 per cent purity lithium carbonate from Kachi. In January, Lake revealed its plans to ship 20,000 litres of brine sample from Kachi to California for extraction using Lilac’s process.
Lake’s Managing Director, Steve Promnitz, said the investment is a vote of confidence both for Lilac’s technology and Lake’s ability to choose strategic partners.
“This is quality, third party validation in Lake selecting Lilac as our technology provider providing increased efficiency in recoveries and a shorter time to market with sustainable lithium products and a smaller environmental footprint without expansive evaporation ponds,” Steve said.
“These investors made money by investing in disruptive technologies, seeing opportunities and promoting higher efficiencies with greater environmental outcomes,” he said.
Carmichael Roberts from Breakthrough Energy spoke highly of Lilac’s tech.
“Lilac Solutions’ novel technology can change the supply and demand equation by helping lithium producers extract much larger quantities at a significantly lower cost, and from new sources. This is the type of industrial innovation required to support a transition to EVs [electrc vehicles] at scale,” Carmichael said.
With a load of brine samples from Kachi expected to arrive at the docks of Oakland, California next week, investors have given the Lake-Lilac partnership a fresh tick of approval after today’s news.
Lake is the biggest gainer on the Aussie share market today with shares spiking 30.56 per cent in early afternoon trade. Currently, Lake shares are worth 4.7 cents each.