AUTHOR: Luke Housego SECTION: TECHNOLOGY ARTICLE TYPE: NEWS ITEM AUDIENCE : 38,015 PAGE: 20 PRINTED SIZE: 176.00cm² REGION: National MARKET: Australia ASR: AUD 3,556 WORDS: 463 ITEM ID: 1238647983 25 FEB, 2020 Miner surges as Gates backs its tech investment Australian Financial Review, Australia Page 1 of 1 Miner surges as Gates backs its tech investment Luke Housego the surface. The liquid is allowed to evaporate with the remaining material Shares in small-cap ASX-listed lithium collected and processed to produced developer Lake Resources have surged the high-grade lithium required. after a venture capital fund headed by By contrast, the process developed Bill Gates threw its weight behind the by Lilac pumps the brine through a net- company’s technology partner. work of processing modules. The mod- Lake Resources has been working ules extract the lithium from the liquid with California-based Lilac Solutions, as it passes through which is developing a low-cost lithium Lake managing director Steve production technology, since 2018 but Promnitz said this reduced time, land investors grew excited last week when use and water loss, while delivering a the company was backed by a VC fund high-quality product. featuring some of the biggest names in ‘‘It’s difficult to get the market to the tech and investment world. recognise new technologies,’’ the for- Breakthrough Energy Ventures led a mer geologist and investment banker series A investment of $US20 million said. ($30.2 million) in Lilac. ‘‘This is validation, so that helps us.’’ As well as being chaired by Brine from Lake’s Kachi lithium pro- Microsoft’s founder, the fund’s backers ject in Argentina will be put through a also include Alibaba founder Jack Ma; recently commissioned pilot plant built Amazon founder and the world’s at Lilac’s site in California. wealthiest person Jeff Bezos; and The facility has capacity to produce Bridgewater Associates founder and up to 10 tonnes of lithium a year, which globally recognised investor Ray Dalio. will be used as samples that can be The market validation drove Lake’s tested by potential buyers and battery share price up by more than 35 per cent makers. at the end of last week to 4.9¢, with its Lake’s ultimate goal is to see the tech- market capitalisation rising from nology deployed at its Kachi lithium $20.8 million to $28.30 million after the project. As part of Lake’s long-term announcement. strategy to become a differentiated lith- The investment will support the ium producer, Lake carried out due development of a method to extract diligence on 15 technologies before lithium from brine processed to pro- cementing its partnership with Lilac. duce the material. Mr Promnitz said Lilac Solutions Lithium, a key ingredient in batteries had proved the value of its technology used in electric vehicles, is produced but the strength of the company’s team from either rock (spodumene) or a salt- was a key factor. heavy water (brine) most commonly Lilac was founded by materials found aquifers in parts of South Amer- engineer and battery expert David ica. Snydacker. The team has been built out Lithium-containing brine is cur- with the addition of former corporate rently processed by pumping large transaction lawyer Nick Goldberg and volumes from underground aquifers to petroleum engineer Tom Wilson. Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence..