With the rapid growth in demand for cleaner technologies and Li-ion batteries, the world is placing greater demands on the lithium supply chain. To satisfy these needs, lithium producers need to find and continuously refine their workflow to effect efficient exploitation of lithium from ores such as spodumene and optimisation of lithium extraction workflows.

In this context, LIBS or Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy is an ideally suited analytical technique to enhance lithium extraction. It is one of a select few techniques that can directly analyse lithium content, and with the added bones that it does not require any sample preparation. Elemission have commercialised high-speed LIBS analysis at high-resolution in the form of systems like the ECORE, ECORE Flex and Coriosity, exactly what is needed for processing lithium ores, including real-time analysis of ore feed on conveyor belts.

This application note demonstrates the close correlation of lithium content between LIBS and its more well-known counterpart ICP-AES (Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy). It then shows how the proprietary software provides elemental maps and how its AI (artificial intelligence)-powered can generate mineral maps and lithology of spodumene-bearing crushed ores, as well as stacked maps for clear and easy reporting.

Download the Application Note