MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY — The infusion of $5 million from a provincial entity to help finance a lithium demonstration production facility east of Olds could lead to hundreds, possibly thousands of jobs, attendees at a news conference were told last week.
That could mean jobs for Mountain View County residents and businesses, the county's deputy reeve Dwayne Fulton said.
Fulton was among about 30 people on hand when the announcement of the money was made Aug. 15 at the E3 Lithium test facility north of Reed Ranch School.
Lithium is a key ingredient in batteries used to power everything from cellphones to electric vehicles.
The industry has the potential to put Alberta and Canada on a par with leading lithium producers around the world, news conference attendees were told.
Currently, the world’s biggest lithium producers are Australia, Chile and China.
The $5 million is being provided to Calgary-based E3 Lithium by Emissions Reduction Alberta to build a fully integrated lithium brine demonstration facility at the test site.
This is the next step after a pilot project there proved the process works.
The process takes wastewater from oil and gas drilling, extracts the naturally occurring lithium and returns the water back.
The facility will extract lithium from brine in a giant aquifer then concentrate it to produce battery-grade lithium.
The plan is then to send the carbonate to potential customers so they can test it to ensure it’s of the quality they need to make batteries.
“Alberta has the opportunity to really grab hold of this market and produce global-scale sizes of lithium production,” said Chris Doornbos, president and chief executive officer of E3 Lithium.
If all goes well, the company could construct four or five more such facilities and build a commercial production facility, possibly in 2026.
The location of that commercial production facility has not yet been decided, but Leigh Clarke, E3’s vice-president of government and regulatory affairs, told the Albertan it could make sense to locate it in the Mountain View County area because it’s fairly central, right over the aquifer.
During the news conference, Doornbos said the potential is so great, the company could create thousands of jobs.
“We look to create just locally approximately 200 jobs to operate the facility and thousands of jobs in terms of the construction and the service industry that we need to employ to get this thing up and running,” he said.
Doornbos said an advantage for Albertans is that the skills needed for many, if not most, of those jobs are directly transferrable from the oil industry.
He said the facility E3 plans to build “operates almost identically to an oil and gas project, and so therefore, we have the skillset here in the province, locally in this area, to not only build this facility that we plan to look to build in 2026 in a commercial scenario, but also to staff it,” he said.
“I think it’s exciting for Alberta in general,” Fulton said during an interview with the Albertan.
“Mountain View County, we’re just fortunate that they found the area to do the work here and we’re supportive of what they’re doing right now and we’ll see how they make out.
“Hopefully if this project continues on, there’ll be obviously employment opportunities available and oil and gas industry has been long-standing in Mountain View County. So it sounds like it’s going to be a direct transition from oil and gas into lithium extraction.
“(They’re) very similar jobs, so it should be an excellent opportunity.
“And we have oilfield service companies (and) construction all exists within Mountain View County so if the main project gets going, there should be opportunities for employment for our county businesses and residents.”
Doornbos said E3 obtained about $30 million from the federal government to help finance its operations and added there’s even a chance for money from the U.S. government, due to its concern about obtaining lithium from North America rather than other parts of the world.
Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz said the lithium industry fits in nicely with the Alberta government’s philosophy of diversifying its energy-producing portfolio.
“For us, the future of energy is not an either-or conversation. We will need oil and gas for generations to come,” Schulz said.
“Yet, I’m also proud to talk about us as an energy leader in hydrogen, in geothermal, in renewable energy, and of course oil and critical minerals.”
Justin Riemer, CEO of Emissions Reduction Alberta, described E3’s process that doesn’t use any fresh water – as a “win/win situation.”
“The world needs lithium and Alberta is positioned to produce it at scale. Talk about a game-changer for both this region and for this province,” he said.
Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper voiced similar sentiments.
“Right here in Alberta, we are leading the way, pushing boundaries and rapidly moving towards a more sustainable future,” he said.
“By working with industry and innovators, we’re finding creative solutions while still making sure that Alberta’s energy powers the world for decades to come.”
