Firms invests in EnergySource hoping to make mineralextraction a reality
As a way to continue to invest in what looks to be apromising technology for mineral extraction fromgeothermal brine, a Texasbased investment firm MillsCapital Group, LLC acquired 38 percent of the ownershipinterest in EnergySource.EnergySource operates the Featherstone Geothermal Plant inCalipatria, which is the most recently built plant in the SaltonSea known geothermal resource area.The geothermal brine produced by the Salton Sea geothermalresources is highly mineralized and corrosive, which makesit a necessity to constantly remove them from its system.Extraction of these minerals from the brine is one of the mostsignificant costs of the geothermal development in the SaltonSea. The state has the potential to help commercializedomestic mineral mining from geothermal brine, which will produce lithium and manganese dioxidenecessary for electric battery manufacturing, thereby transforming an economic cost into an economicbenefit.
President of EnergySource Eric Spomer said the company has been looking into a variety of technologiesfor mineral extraction and believes it has identified the right technology to do the job, and the partnershipwith Mills Capital Group was a way to invest to move to the next stage of the process.“We believe we are on the right track, we still need to conduct further testing but we are very encouraged bythe results we’ve gotten so far,” Spomer said.He noted that they should know if the technology works by spring of next year.“We saw the potential and progress of EnergySource’s minerals extraction program and formed LiNERGY,LLC to consolidate ownership and maintain operations of the Featherstone Plant,” Bart W. Mills, presidentof Mills Capital Group LLC, said in a statement. “We also wanted to pursue EnergySource’s originalobjective of extraction and recovery of commercially valuable minerals including lithium.”The end goal for all parties involved is to successfully identify an economically feasible technology thatwould allow them to commercialize the minerals from geothermal brine. A minerals extraction facility inthe Salton Sea has the potential to create hundreds of jobs, first in the construction of the facility, followedby jobs in operations, service, transportation of materials, etc
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