Zelandez is thrilled to announce that Flavia Royon, Argentina’s former Secretary of Energy and Mining, will join the company’s board as a director.
The appointment ensures that the world’s leading lithium brinefield technology provider will have a crucial Argentinian perspective on operations as the South American nation further strengthens its position as one of the world’s largest lithium suppliers.
“Argentina is set to play an essential strategic role in the world’s energy transition moving forward, and Zelandez will be a crucial partner in making that happen,” Royon says. “Having an Argentinian at the top table with Zelandez is a big win for both parties.”
A trained industrial engineer, Royon served as the Secretary of Mining and Energy for Salta province before serving as Argentina’s Secretary of Energy between 2022 and 2023. Royon was appointed Secretary of Mining by President Javier Milei in December 2023, a role she left this February. She will officially start as a Zelandez board member later this month.
Gene Morgan, Zelandez’s chief executive, says Royon’s extensive experience and understanding of the Argentine lithium mining sector will give the company an invaluable perspective.
“From Salta to the halls of power in Buenos Aires, Flavia knows what it takes to ensure lithium brine mining benefits all stakeholders,” Morgan says. “Along with her commitment to community engagement, her insight will be a huge asset for Zelandez.”
Royon described Zelandez’s reputation as a pragmatic, honest broker in the South American lithium brine industry as a key reason she agreed to join its board.
“Whether you work as a brinefield engineer or as a policymaker on the provincial or national level, Zelandez has built up the reputation as a professional, dependable partner on South America’s brinefields,” she says.
“As a board member, I am dedicated to strengthening that reputation and showing my fellow Argentinians why our nation can benefit from the lithium brine mining process.”
Forming part of South America's ‘lithium triangle’, Argentina is currently the world’s fourth largest lithium producer, providing around 34,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) annually. By 2027, it is estimated to grow significantly, surpassing Chile as the world’s second-largest producer.
Last month, Zelandez partnered with the Argentine province of Catamarca in an agreement to provide modular prefabricated plants for the nation’s top lithium-producing state. The central element of the partnership is the supply and utilization of ErLi, Zelandez’s prefabricated lithium production facilities.
Media Team
July 9, 2024
Press
Zelandez has partnered with the Argentinian province of Catamarca in an agreement to provide modular prefabricated plants for the South American nation’s top lithium-producing province.
The partnership links the world’s leading lithium brine technology provider with Catamarca’s mining and energy company.
Prefabricated lithium carbonate production plants form the partnership’s central element, which Zelandez will build in the United States.
Gene Morgan, Zelandez’s chief executive, says a formal partnership with CAMYEN felt like a natural progression for the two organizations and a “major win for stakeholders in the Argentinian lithium industry and its supply line to the United States.”
"Zelandez has long been serving clients in the state of Catamarca, and we have enjoyed the pragmatic way that the region seeks to assist local lithium production,” Morgan says. “This partnership aims to help all our clients in the region."
"We welcome this engagement with Zelandez as a way to continue to add value to the province's lithium resources, create jobs, and generate export income," Susana Prelate Molina, the president of CAMYEN, says.
The agreement will also see Zelandez and CAMYEN team up to facilitate future project finance partnerships from the United States, Europe, and Japan. Under Argentinian law, provinces retain mineral resource rights.
By 2027, Argentina is estimated to grow lithium production significantly, surpassing Chile as the world’s second-largest lithium producer. Today, around 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) is produced annually from Catamarca’s brinefields, representing more than half of Argentina’s overall production. Most the nation’s lithium brine exploration projects also occur in the province.
Catamarca is located at the heart of South America’s "Lithium Triangle," which contains more than 60% of the world’s total lithium reserves in brine formations. South American brine-sourced lithium is considered the lowest-cost source of the battery-critical element.
About Zelandez
Zelandez is the leading services provider to the lithium brine industry. The company provides a comprehensive suite of advanced resource exploration and production tools. Zelandez also offers complete wrap-around integrated services for lithium mining companies designed to accelerate the path to lithium production. Zelandez works with leading lithium mining companies in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, the United States, and Canada.
About CAMYEN
CAMYEN is the mining and energy company of Catamarca Argentina, and its main objective is the development of Catamarca's mining and energy, through the sustainable use of natural resources and the preservation of the environment while society continues developing. CAMYEN holds mining rights by way of business contracts and company collaborations in the lithium market in the region.
Learn more about Zelandez here.
Media team
June 29, 2024
Press
Austin, Texas, March 5, 2024 — Zelandez, the leading provider of technology to the
lithium brine industry, today announced the availability of its new Borehole Formation
Tester (BFT) to lithium developers worldwide.
The BFT is the world’s slimmest pump-through formation tester designed to specifically address lithium miners’ needs by measuring aquifer pressure, analyzing fluids downhole in real-time, and obtaining representative brine samples. It significantly reduces the costs of lithium brine development when compared to the less accurate incumbent ‘packer testing method’.
Lithium developers will no longer depend on large expensive rig-deployed sampling, which has high supply costs, to retrieve brine samples from below ground. The BFT reduces the time needed to sample quality lithium brine. Contaminated brine samples will become a thing of the past.
The BFT provides detailed pressure and productivity data and allows clients' hydrogeology teams to optimize brine and lithium production. It speeds up the development period required to bring lithium to market at a lower cost.
Currently, no product or service offers lithium operations the level of pressure measurement, fluid characterization, and reservoir testing that the BFT does.
“The world needs more lithium. The old way of sampling lithium was just too slow and too cumbersome. It was making it hard to find new lithium brine resources and to bring more lithium to market. The Borehole Formation Tester changes that - it changes the game for lithium developers. The BFT is another example of Zelandez innovating specifically for the needs of the lithium market,” said Gene Morgan, CEO of Zelandez.
“The BFT was built to address the specific challenges of aquifer testing and fluid sampling in lithium brine exploration and production. Instead of it taking weeks, it delivers results within hours or days.”
The BFT enables the lithium mining industry to conduct rigless pressure and permeability testing and fluid sampling in slim boreholes down to 122mm (PQ). The BFT provides testing and sampling in low permeability, laminated, fractured, unconsolidated, and heterogeneous formations. It enhances lithium miners’ decision- making by delivering real-time access to actionable aquifer data. Through enhanced definition of the complex sub-surfaces poor well deliverability is mitigated.
It also enables miners to understand better and meet their reinjection requirements.
“While Formation Testers are commonplace in the Oil and Gas industry, their size and cost have made them impractical for use in the brinefield. The BFT has miniaturized this technology for lithium miners” adds Morgan.
Zelandez’s BFT serves the testing and sampling needs of the lithium brine, groundwater, hard rock, coal seam gas, natural hydrogen, and helium sectors.
Zelandez is the leader in brinefield services and provides a comprehensive suite of technology for lithium brine explorers and producers, including full wrap-around integrated project management, modular lithium production plants, sensors, and expert geoscience and engineering know-how. Zelandez works with the majority of lithium mining companies in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and North America.
For More Information
Matt Adams
BFT Director of Sales
Tel: +61 467 726 027
E-Mail: [email protected]
Matt Adams
March 19, 2024
Uncategorized
Choose Zelandez for your lithium brine project
