A couple of weeks ago we published an opinion column by Francisco Muñoz, partner and commercial director of FYNSA, in which he wondered what a good idea it was to create a national lithium company to lead the industry, while stressing the urgency of accelerating its development due to the speed at which the market is moving. 

In this regard, this week Bloomberg published a report that sheds light on the new competition that may appear for traditional lithium producers such as Chile. the new competition that may appear for traditional lithium producers such as Chile.

A number of ventures in Canada have been betting for some time on recovering lithium contained in brines from depleted oil wells. Using direct lithium extraction (DEL) technology, companies such as E3, Prairie Lithium and LithiumBank are raising capital, conducting research and developing exploration in Canadian oil areas to extract this resource. 

For now, the great challenge is to ensure that the LED technologies they are developing - which must also be adapted to each type of brine - can be profitable, and this is one of the main focuses of their efforts at present.

Their main advantages are that, by having rights over old oil fields, these companies have all the geological and geochemical information necessary to know their reserves. In other words, the investment in exploration is low. At the same time, they are located in areas where it is easier tot is easier to obtain the necessary environmental permits in areas where there is already developed transportation and service infrastructure.