Clean TeQ Water says it has been awarded a $12.5 million contract by Rigi – Rincon Mining Pty Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto – for the Rincon lithium project in Argentina.
The contract involves the engineering design, procurement and supply of a lithium concentrate softening plant using Clean TeQ’s proprietary CLEAN-IX® Moving Bed Ion Exchange (MBIX) technology.
The MBIX process is, Clean TeQ Water says, highly effective for the selective and efficient removal of contaminants such as hardness from lithium brines, enabling more efficient downstream processing. MBIX offers several advantages over conventional ion exchange, including lower water consumption, simplified recycle streams, reduced operating expenditure, minimal dilution of the lithium product stream and up to 10 times lower lithium losses.
Unlike fixed-bed and simulated moving-bed systems that cycle solutions, MBIX is a true moving-bed process, the company says. The resin itself flows continuously from column to column, counter-current to the solution, maximising loading at each stage. This continuous operation delivers high selectivity and removal efficiency, even from challenging feeds, while using less water, fewer reagents and a smaller footprint. Because MBIX is delivered as modular trains, it integrates easily into existing circuits and scales by replication.
Clean TeQ says the award marks a strategic achievement for the company, being one of the largest contracts in its history and its first major project in South America.
Clean TeQ Water CEO, Peter Voigt, said: “We are proud to be selected by Rio Tinto to support such a strategically important lithium project. This contract is one of our largest and is our first in the South American lithium triangle. The award is a strong endorsement of our MBIX technology as a best-in-class solution for, in this case, lithium refining – where it reduces lithium loss and fresh water use.
“As lithium demand accelerates over the coming decades, we see a significant global opportunity for MBIX as a critical enabler of cost-effective, sustainable lithium production.”
In parallel, Clean TeQ is advancing proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction (cDLE®) capabilities through its Go2Lithium joint venture. The JV is focused on commercialising Clean TeQ’s continuous ion exchange for efficient lithium recovery from brines. cDLE is emerging as a transformative approach to lithium supply by offering higher recoveries and lower environmental footprint compared with conventional evaporation, it says. “This positions Clean TeQ at both the front and back (refining) ends of the lithium production chain, enhancing its strategic relevance as lithium demand accelerates in response to the global EV and energy storage boom.”
With a total investment of more than $2 billion by Rio Tinto, the Rincon project will develop a scalable, long-life resource capable of producing 60,000 t/y of battery-grade lithium carbonate from raw brine.
