Mitigating Emissions
We are designing our Carolina Lithium operation so the air quality for our neighbors is safe and monitored. Based on modeling completed as part of our air permit application, we do not believe the project will have any material impact on the quality of air outside our permit boundary.
We plan to maintain emissions within federal, state, and local guidelines and within our permit requirements by utilizing robust emissions-control equipment and air scrubbers that purify the air of contaminants. Our engineers also are planning for monitoring systems that should alert us to any potential issues.
Dust control techniques, including reusing water from our pits to suppress dust, are expected to help reduce particulates in the air. We also plan to spend millions of dollars on enclosed, electric conveyor systems that will help decrease dust along with noise and the number of trucks needed to operate Carolina Lithium. Fewer haul trucks also will result in less dust and fewer emissions through reductions in diesel fuel requirements.
We are designing our lithium hydroxide conversion facility to use the innovative Metso leaching technology, which primarily uses pressure and steam and has fewer air emissions than the traditional acid roasting process – the most widely used lithium extraction method today. And we are planning to use high-efficiency boilers for steam generation, while minimizing the number of boilers required to run our processes, further improving our emissions profile.