Tonopah Flats

The Tonopah Flats Lithium Project is strategically located in Esmeralda County, just 6 miles west of Tonopah, Nevada, in the Big Smoky Valley. Positioned midway between Las Vegas and Reno, this historic mining town offers access to vital infrastructure, including electricity, water, and a skilled local workforce. With strong support from the surrounding community and local government, the region provides an ideal environment for scaling innovative mining operations.

Tonopah itself is steeped in mining history, dating back to 1900, when gold, silver, copper, and lead were the primary resources extracted. Today, the discovery of lithium has brought new excitement to the area, positioning it as a key player in the clean energy transition. Beyond its mining legacy, Tonopah is renowned for its stunningly dark night skies, making it one of the best stargazing destinations in the nation.

ABTC’s Tonopah satellite office, located on Main Street, opened in Spring 2022 to support the Tonopah Flats Lithium Exploration Project. This office serves as the home base for our Resource team, driving the development of this groundbreaking initiative and ensuring a strong connection to the local community.

The Tonopah Flats Lithium Project is situated in a region characterized by extensive lithium-bearing claystone deposits. The site spans an area of continuous lithium mineralization measuring approximately 7,925 meters north to south and 1,524 to 4,572 meters east to west, with thicknesses reaching up to 436 meters. The claystone hosts significant lithium concentrations, with over 1.3 billion tonnes of measured and indicated material at an average grade of 755 ppm lithium, using a 300 ppm cutoff grade. This geological setting provides a robust resource base for long-term lithium extraction.

The surface mine will incorporate advanced construction, design features and newer technologies, such as autonomous trucks and radar-based slope stability monitoring, enhance operational efficiency and safety, ensuring the mine’s ability to meet its production goals while minimizing environmental impact. Mining operations utilize conventional methods with minimal drilling and blasting due to the soft claystone.

The project is estimated to have an after-tax net present value (NPV) of $2.57 billion, with a 21.8% internal rate of return (IRR) and a 7.5-year payback period, highlighting its economic viability.

The Tonopah Flats Lithium Project is supported by ABTC’s innovative claystone-to-lithium hydroxide pilot plant, located at its recycling facility near Reno, Nevada. This pilot plant has successfully demonstrated the ability to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide directly from claystone sourced from the TFLP site, validating the potential of this unconventional resource.

The pilot plant incorporates ABTC’s proprietary sustainable lithium extraction process, which includes pretreatment, selective lithium leaching, and refining operations. These methods achieve high lithium recovery rates while significantly reducing impurities in the pregnant leach solution (PLS), facilitating downstream purification and the potential for improved economic viability.

The success of the pilot plant provides critical data and operational insights for scaling the technology to a commercial refinery that will be located at the Tonopah Flats Lithium Project site. The pilot plant’s continuous two-week demonstration campaigns have proven the robustness and repeatability of the process, validating its design and operational stability.

The Tonopah Flats Lithium Project includes a cutting-edge refinery to be constructed at the mine site, designed to process lithium-bearing claystone into battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM).

At the core of the refinery’s operations is ABTC’s internally developed Selective Lithium Extraction (SLE) process. This proprietary technology demonstrates high selectivity for lithium, significantly reducing the leaching of non-lithium elements into the process stream. The SLE process simplifies purification and conversion steps, resulting in lower consumption of chemical reagents and water, while improving overall efficiency. This innovative approach ensures the production of high-purity LHM while minimizing environmental impact.

The Tonopah Flats Lithium Project is designed as a self-sustaining operation with planned on-site power generation that will supply the project’s energy needs without requiring major local electrical grid upgrades or placing significant additional demand on NV Energy’s system. Combined with a design that limits truck traffic and infrastructure demands, the project seeks to minimize impacts on surrounding communities.