Intrepid Potash-Wendover, Aquatech International, and Adionics have advanced their Wendover Lithium Project in Utah, reporting high lithium recovery and battery-grade product quality from potash brine waste streams. The project is positioned as a domestic source of critical minerals that could support electrification and downstream industries, including batteries for uncrewed systems and other defense and aerospace applications previously affected by rare earth and critical mineral constraints.
Wendover Lithium Project performance
The Wendover facility is designed to produce 5,000 metric tons per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) from existing potash brine operations in Utah. According to project partners, recent test campaigns achieved a lithium extraction rate of 92.9%, with overall lithium chloride purity exceeding 99.5% prior to final conversion.
In subsequent process steps, Aquatech reports converting the lithium‑rich brine into a lithium carbonate product with purity at or above 99.5%, meeting key specifications for battery manufacturing. This performance suggests that the integrated flow sheet—from selective extraction through concentration and conversion—can consistently deliver material suitable for high‑performance energy storage applications.
Advanced ionic extraction technology
The Wendover Lithium Project combines Intrepid’s existing brine resource and operational footprint with Aquatech’s process engineering and Adionics’ ionic extraction technology. Adionics’ approach focuses on selectively recovering lithium from complex brine matrices, enabling the partners to convert what was previously treated as waste brine into a strategic mineral stream without developing a greenfield evaporation or mining asset.
Test results indicate that the process can maintain both high recovery and high purity, two parameters that are critical for scaling lithium production for battery supply chains supporting electric vehicles and uncrewed systems. By leveraging existing industrial infrastructure, the project aims to shorten timelines compared to many early‑stage mining projects in the broader critical minerals sector.
Domestic critical minerals supply
Located in Wendover, Utah, the facility is expected to produce enough lithium carbonate equivalent to support around 5,000 EVs over the next decade, while creating new technical and operational jobs in rural Utah. For U.S. manufacturers of drones and other uncrewed platforms that have already faced pressure from China’s rare earth export restrictions and related supply chain disruptions, the emergence of new domestic critical mineral sources is an important part of long‑term resilience planning. Partners state that transforming waste brine into a domestic lithium source aligns with broader efforts to localize critical inputs for batteries, propulsion systems, and mission‑critical electronics.
“Intrepid, Aquatech, and Adionics have joined forces to develop the Wendover Lithium Project, which will deliver 5,000 metric tons per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) from Utah’s unique potash brine operations,” the companies note, describing the effort as “an unprecedented convergence of proven American resource mastery, world-class engineering excellence, and cutting-edge extraction technology.
More information on the Wendover project is available from Intrepid Potash’s website. Further details are available from Aquatech‘s and Adionics’ websites respectively.
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Ian McNabb is a journalist focusing on drone technology and lifestyle content at Dronelife. He is based between Boston and NH and, when not writing, enjoys hiking and Boston area sports.