California geothermal lithium project secures $1.36 billion direct loan
LPO announces conditional commitment for Project ATLiS (source: US Department of Energy)
Carlo Cariaga
16 Jan 2025
Project ATLiS, which will produce lithium from geothermal brine in California, has received conditional commitment from the US DOE for a $1.22 billion loan.
California-based EnergySource Minerals (ESM), via subsidiary SPV ESM ATLiS LLC (ATLiS), has secured a conditional commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) for a direct loan of up to $1.36 billion. The funding will go towards the construction, equipping, and operation of the ATLiS facility in Imperial County, California which aims to produce lithium hydroxide from geothermal brine.
ATLiS submitted its application to LPO in May 2023. Today’s announcement reinforces the Department of Energy’s commitment to strengthening the nation’s manufacturing competitiveness and ensuring the country’s energy future is built by Americans, for Americans.
The company had previously signed a binding lithium supply contract with Ford Motor Company for sustainably produced lithium hydroxide.
About Project ATLiS
The facility is expected to produce up to 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide annually, enough for approximately 52 GWh of lithium-ion batteries per year.
The ATLiS facility will use a technology called direct lithium extraction (DLE) to recover lithium from Salton Sea geothermal brine. DLE technologies are applicable in many lithium brine and clay resources across the United States, allowing economically competitive extraction where impurities or lower lithium concentrations would otherwise limit commercial opportunities. DLE also requires less water and land versus conventional extraction methods from brines, such as evaporation ponds.
Project ATLiS will be the first facility to utilize the process at commercial scale in the United States. ATLiS will deploy a proprietary DLE technology called ILiAD™ (developed by ESM ILiAD LLC, another EnergySource Minerals subsidiary) for lithium recovery, which has been piloted with various brine resources across the United States and internationally, including in Utah, Texas, and Nevada, in addition to onsite in California.
The facility will be sited next to an existing geothermal plant, which will supply the lithium-rich brine from the subsurface geothermal field located over one mile underground. After impurities are removed from the brine, the lithium will be separated out using the ILiAD™ DLE technology.
The lithium-depleted brine will be returned to the geothermal plant for reinjection into the geothermal reservoir, and the lithium will be further purified, crystallized, and packaged into battery-grade material. The brine features additional recoverable critical minerals supporting America’s industrial base, including zinc and manganese, which ATLiS expects to extract and commercialize.
Prior DOE analysis has estimated that potential lithium production from the Salton Sea known geothermal resource area may exceed 4 million metric tons, which can produce over 10,000 GWh of battery capacity. This project supports the Administration’s efforts to strengthen supply chains that are key to national energy security, reduce reliance on economic competitors like China, and unlock America’s tremendous domestic lithium resource
Source: US Department of Energy
