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Back in July, the U.S. government classified silver as a critical mineral, which foreshadowed in part the asset’s rise through CY2025 as it tracked gold prices. Now, the U.S. Geological Service has done the same.
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Disclaimer: This content has been prepared as part of a partnership with Lithium Universe Ltd and is intended for informational purposes only.
And with Lithium Universe (ASX:LU7) pivoting into solar panel recycling – within which silver paste is used as a conductive material – the company stands to benefit as it starts probing around Texas for a U.S.-based landholding to locate its extraction efforts.
Lithium Universe noted on Tuesday, this comes at the same time the U.S. is forecast to enter a deficit (as far as its silver market goes) in the months ahead, with some 200Moz of demand annually going into solar panels. The company has reported before that if you take all the solar panels around needing recycling, one would be sitting on what is the equivalent of a global-market-shifting silver mine resource.
“Silver’s new designation as a U.S. Critical Mineral comes at the perfect time for Lithium Universe. Our PV recycling strategy, built around high‐efficiency silver recovery, aligns directly with America’s need to strengthen domestic supply chains for energy‐transition materials,” LU7 Chairman Iggy Tan said.
“We are positioning LU7 to play a significant role in the future circular economy for solar materials in North America.”
Lithium Universe’s recycling technology uses a combination of Jet Electrochemical Silver Extraction (JESE) and Microwave Joule Heating Technology (MJHT) to remove the high-value metal from PV solar panels. Lithium Universe is banking on a sharp upward spike in the amount of spent solar panels in the U.S. from 2030 onwards, revealing the company’s mid-to-long-term focus on this market.
Lithium Universe has already established a site in Texas at the Port of Brownsville; the company is now looking for a facility to handle a JESE/MJHT facility able to be scaled with a target throughput of four tonnes per hour at nameplate capacity.
LU7 last traded at 1.2cps.
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