Clayton Valley is located within the Basin and Range Province in southern Nevada. It is a closed basin that is fault-bounded on the north by the Weepah Hills, the east by Clayton Ridge, the south by the Palmetto Mountains and the west by the Silver Peak Range and Mineral Ridge.

The basin is bounded to the east by a steep normal fault system toward which basin strata thicken. The north and east parts of Clayton Valley are flanked with Miocene to Pliocene sediments containing multiple primary and reworked volcanic ash deposits within finegrained clay and silt units. These deposits are a part of the Esmeralda Formation. The Esmeralda Formation is a sedimentary sequence grading from coal bearing siltstones, sandstones and conglomerates at the base to fine-grained, tuffaceous lacustrine sediments at the top of the section.

The deposit type for the Project is a continental, mineral-enriched brine aquifer within a hydrographically closed basin (endorheic basin). The principal mineral resource is lithium and is a dissolved product in a predominately sodium chloride brine. The brine is hyper-saline groundwater that saturates the pore spaces and fracture-apertures of basin-fill deposits (brine aquifer) that have accumulated over time in the basin. Dissolved minerals in the brine, such as lithium, originate from multiple processes of mineral dissolution and precipitation, remobilization, geothermal circulation, and evaporation occurring in the basin aquifer.

Wells installed at the Project would include extraction wells producing brine for the process facility and monitoring wells for collecting physical and chemical data to assess aquifer conditions during the life of mine. Several possible well designs, including varying well depths and production intervals (screened intervals of well casing) are expected to be planned for the extraction wells to allow for
operational flexibility. Boreholes for extraction wells would be drilled using reverse circulation or casing advance drilling methods in order to allow for hydraulically efficient wells. Borehole diameters would be sufficient to allow for installation of casing that will accommodate the submersible pumps. The cased portions of the boreholes are planned as 8-inch nominal diameter. The casing annulus would be grouted above the screened area of the well casing to prevent the potential leakage of dilute brine.

Construction and operation of extraction wells would be phased during initial years of mining. Throughout the life of mine, as existing extraction wells lose efficiency, replacement wells are planned and would be funded by sustaining capital.

The selection of lithium hydroxide monohydrate as the product is driven by the requirements of potential customers, such as Tesla, for use in the production of lithium ion batteries.

The Tenova circuit design is such that the input brines can be converted to lithium hydroxide monohydrate product without having to produce lithium carbonate as an intermediate step.

The proposed Tenova Process would use unit operations related to technologies already in use in industrial practice. The Tenova circuit design is such that lithium in the input brines can be converted to LiOH·H2O without having to produce lithium carbonate as an intermediate step. The application of these unit operations in this sequence and for the recovery of lithium are what would make the Clayton Valley Project the first of its kind.

The overall process would consist of the following seven steps:
1. Brine Reception
2. Pre-Treatment - LiP™ process
3. pH Elevation and Polishing
4. Solvent Extraction - LiSX™ process
5. Electrolysis - LiEL™ process
6. Evaporation and Crystallization
7. Product Drying, Packing and Handling

The brine fluids from the basin would be collected and pumped to storage at the main plant. The storage ponds would provide approximately 12 hours of storage. The brine, at a rate of about 1,250 m3 /h (5500 gpm), would be pumped to the pre-treatment stage.

The reject brine solution, at a rate of approximately 125 m3 /h (550 gpm) – roughly 10 percent of the pumped brine - would be returned to the brine storage section prior to return to the basin.

The organic solvent would be mostly composed of a diluent to which would be added an active extractant. The first part of the SX step would be the extraction stage in which the lithium ions from the feed aqueous phase would be taken up into the organic phase. This would take place in a series of Tenova Pulsed Columns. The Tenova Pulsed Columns would be approximately 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in diameter with an active height of approximately 22 meters (72 feet). Disc-and doughnut internals would facilitate the establishment of a stable dispersion of the advancing aqueous in the advancing organic phase through the application of pulsation.

The electrolysis would be carried out in a divided compartment cell, Figure 17 – 2 Conceptual Diagram of Electrochemical Cell, using a membrane to separate the anode and cathode compartments. The lithium sulphate solution from the LiSX™ process would be fed into the anode compartment. At the anode oxygen ions would be oxidized to elemental oxygen, that would leave the compartment in the gaseous form, resulting in excess of positive charge, while at the cathode hydrogen ions would be reduced to elemental hydrogen, that would leave the compartment in the gaseous form, thereby creating a cation deficit.

The final stage of the process would be to concentrate the lithium hydroxide solution produced by the electrolysis step using evaporation until it reached saturation. The saturated solution would be fed into a crystallizer unit to produce LiOH·H2O crystals.