MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY — A lithium drilling test project about 20 kilometres east of Olds near Torrington was officially opened during a ceremony Sept. 7.
If testing for Calgary-based E3 Lithium Ltd. continues to be as promising as it has been, that could lead to commercial production by late 2026.
“We anticipate that our full commercial facility will be able to provide 150 long-term, well-paying Alberta jobs,” E3 chief executive officer and founder Chris Doornbos announced during the ceremony.
That could in turn lead to many lithium extracting plants throughout central Alberta, creating between 500 and 1,000 jobs within the next 10 to 15 years, Doornbos said during an interview with the Albertan.
Lithium is a key ingredient in batteries, especially for electric vehicles (EVs), but also for cellphones, computers, glass cook tops and other products.
It can be found in the Leduc aquifer (a vast underground lake or river) that also stores oil and gas.
Doornbos said his company is interested in drilling in land about 45 kilometres wide and 160 kilometres long on average, stretching from about Airdrie to about Camrose.
E3’s process is to pump brine from the aquifer and separate out the lithium from that brine. The remaining liquid goes back into the aquifer.
The lithium is then progressively concentrated to the point where it can be used for car batteries.
The industry is a great fit in Alberta because lithium can be found in the same places as oil and gas, so some of the workers who honed their skills in the oil and gas industry can apply them in the lithium industry.
Doornbos said about 50 companies have been involved with his firm so far.
Currently, about 30 people work for the company, virtually all from Calgary.
Doornbos said the company is also still looking at setting up a plant and office somewhere between Red Deer and Airdrie.
Doornbos told reporters eventually he can envision the company producing as much as 150,000 tonnes of lithium, about the same as other major players in the world, enough to power 2.2 million vehicles.
He said the test plant is so small it’s not a money-maker right now, but its purpose is to demonstrate that the technology utilized is viable.
He said right now, the company is focusing on extracting and concentrating lithium, but in the future he could see it producing other products like magnesium and calcium chloride – even water for agricultural use.
“For the moment, we're focusing on lithium, simply because it's the most valuable element in the brines,” he said.
Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean helped Doornbos and Mountain View County Reeve Angela Aalbers cut the ribbon to officially open the facility.
“Over the coming years, increased global demand for electric vehicles and battery storage are going to lead to Alberta having another resource not just oil, not just natural gas, but another resource to sell to the world,” Jean said.
“Our province has the expertise and the resources to extract lithium. Often using legacy oil and gas infrastructure and Alberta know-how, our geological formations that helped fuel our oil boom in the 1950s will fuel a new resource industry in the 2020s with higher recovery rates, which is even better.”
Jean said the lithium industry "promises to use a much smaller footprint on the land with fewer environmental impacts than the mined product.”
Mountain View County Reeve Angela Aalbers said the presence of E3 Lithium and the industry in general is great for the county’s tax base and is a potential source of good jobs for county residents.
“I look forward to what this development can mean for job creation, economic diversification as well as showcasing the vast resources our county and Alberta has on the global stage,” she said.
“The workforce of our region is well versed in oil and gas operations. And that transferrable skillset offers E3 Lithium a great opportunity for its industry.”
Aalbers said many local contractors have been working with E3 in everything from the design and construction to operation of the company’s pilot plant and that has provided “economic benefits in the local community.”
Currently, Doornbos estimates there are about half a dozen other companies looking at extracting lithium in the province as well, but he believes E3 is way ahead of them, having created its own special process to create the battery-grade product.
Rather than view those other players as threats, Doornbos said he welcomes them, because the more players there are in the industry, the more solid an investment it appears to investors.
In fact, in the next month or so, he’s anticipating having representatives of rival firms tour the pilot project.
Elsewhere in the world, lithium is concentrated simply by laying it out to dry in the sun. Doornbos said that’s not practical in Alberta, but the drilling process and E3’s technology works just fine.
Former Olds College president and current Red Deer Polytechnic president Stuart Cullum was in the audience of about 25 people.
He said he was “just really here to recognize the success that they have as a company, developing a new resource within central Alberta.”
But down the road, Cullum said, RDP would like to work with E3 to perhaps set up a course for students that would lead to jobs in the lithium industry.
“It’s meeting with companies like E3 and Chris and his team and understanding what they need that’s going to allow us to build those programs of the future so that the talent can be home-grown for companies that are in the region,” he said.
