Boron and lithium company 5E Advanced Materials Inc., Hesperia, Calif., announced on Jan. 2 that it has officially begun mining operations at the wholly-owned 5E Boron Americas Complex in Fort Cady, Calif., with the startup of the wellfield injection process. 5E has a US government Critical Infrastructure designation.
5E said it is now working under its EPA permit to begin extracting minerals. It also announced its operational plan and has started wellfield operations with the goal of completing outstanding operational items at the facility in parallel. 5E expects to begin lab production in the short-term and production of boric acid and lithium carbonate from the small-scale facility by the end of first-quarter 2024.
Initial production will be used for customer qualification as the company seeks to obtain bankable offtake agreements and future sales to support FEL 2 (front loading) engineering as the company focuses on commercial scale.