OTTAWA, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Stria Lithium Inc. (TSX-V: SRA) (OTCQX: SRCAF) (“Stria” or the “Company”) and Grafoid Inc. (“GRAFOID”) are pleased to announce a joint venture to undertake the development of an innovative Graphene based filtration membrane with potential use in the separation of Lithium from Salt and consideration in a pilot agreement with a desalination plant. This joint venture being undertaken in concert with Grafoid Inc. – also a member in the 2GL Green Energy Technology Strategic Alliance – has the potential to result in a filtration membrane innovation to reduce the wastage in the desalination process and provide a viable alternative for conventional methods of recovering Lithium from Salts.
Currently, over 97% of the planet’s water resources are accounted for by the world’s salinated oceans. With changing climate patterns, population growth pressures and a limited supply of new and inexpensive fresh water supplies, desalination represents a potential solution for securing readily accessible fresh water supplies. To meet this growing scarcity, over 16,000 desalination plants – spread around the globe – produce more than 20 Billion gallons of drinkable water per day.1 These plants are constantly seeking methods to drive efficiency and output to meet increasing demand.
This innovative membrane technology is a graphene based membrane with the dual potential to vastly increase efficiencies in the desalination process while – concurrently – extracting lithium from the separated salt. This results in higher yields of both fresh water and commercial lithium to help meet the growing global demands for both valuable resources. Early results suggest that the graphene based membranes are capable of facilitating the separation of lithium from salt brine without the need for extensive evaporation. This effectively makes this process faster, more environmentally friendly and highly cost effective.
More importantly, this technology has the potential to reduce the inherent byproduct (salt) which is traditionally disposed of in oceans around the globe. By employing this technology, this byproduct is put through an additional process using a technology already advanced by Grafoid.
Stria and Grafoid’s recent agreement for deploying its graphene based filtration membrane will serve as a real-world test case for how new supplies of fresh water can be secured as the growing demand outstrips the sources available. Additionally, a core benefit of this agreement will be that the lithium extracted during the desalination process will be used as a ready supply for lithium battery production.
Gary Economo, CEO of Stria Lithum, states, “In our opinion, two key resources – which will represent significant value for tomorrow – are solved by our graphene based filtration technology. Not only does it solve the need for clean drinking water, but it also helps us to supply a critical component of the energy solutions we will need to power the world in which we are striving to be around for.”
Dr. Kiran Manga, Grafoid’s Engineering Manager states: “As we set out to solve the basic human need for clean water, we felt that we had an opportunity to shift the very way we solved problems since many of the challenges we will face as a species are highly time sensitive. For many of them – time is simply not on our side. Therefore, we set out to develop solutions that can potentially function to solve more than one problem. The successful co-development of a filtration membrane that serves a dual purpose for desalination and lithium extraction – is a testament to this.”
About Stria Lithium Inc.
Stria Lithium is a Canadian junior mining exploration company with an expanding technology focus and is the sole owner of the Pontax spodumene lithium property in Northern Québec. Stria’s mission is to be a reliable, profitable global source for both lithium metal and lithium compound products and process technologies for producing value added lithium products.
Stria’s expanded business focus is on the application of in-house developed technologies and processes that lead to the production and milling of lithium metal and lithium metal foil for advanced lithium batteries. From the production of lithium metal also comes the value added production of: lithium hydroxide; lithium carbonate; lithium fluoride; and lithium chloride.
Lithium is a critical metal in the universal fight against global warming. It is a core component of Lithium-Ion batteries used for powering electric vehicles and for industrial scale energy storage.
Stria Lithium is part of the 2GL Platform, a green energy technology strategic alliance with Grafoid Inc., Focus Graphite Inc. and Braille Battery Inc.
Contact:
Stria Lithium Inc.
Gary Economo, President & CEO
613 702-0789
[email protected]
www.strialithium.com
About Grafoid.
Founded in 2011, Grafoid Inc. is a graphene research, development and investment company that invests in, manages and develops markets for processes that produce economically scalable graphene for use in graphene development applications by leading corporations and institutions. Grafoid’s leading investment produces application friendly, minimal-defect, high-energy density few layer graphene, utilizing a safe, non-destructive extraction process, leaving the lowest possible ecological footprint. The completely unique, proprietary process results in what Grafoid regards as a new global standard for economically scalable, high-purity graphene products — trademarked under the MesoGraf™ trade name — that can be tailored to both industrial and commercial applications.
Contact:
Grafoid Inc.
Gary Economo, President & CEO
613 702-0789
[email protected]
www.grafoid.com
Disclaimer & Forward Looking Statement
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and may involve risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, competitive developments, risks associated with Stria Lithium’s growth, the state of the financial markets, regulatory risks and other factors. Forward-looking statements included or incorporated by reference in this press release include statements with respect to proposed terms of the private placement transaction. There can be no assurance that any statements of forward-looking information contained in this release will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral statements containing forward-looking information are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Stria disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any statements of forward-looking information that speak only as of the date of this release. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect Stria’s financial and business results is included in public documents Stria files from time to time with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and which are available at www.sedar.com.
1. https://www.lapsedphysicist.org/2013/12/24/desalination-an-important-part-of-our-water-future/
