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Backed by investors including BHP and Temasek, Summit Nanotech is now offering its services in countries such as Chile, in a bid to expand the lithium supply chain.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Gillian Tett
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Hiking in Tibet a few years ago, Ms Amanda Hall encountered a group of monks who, she was surprised to note, were all clutching mobile phones. The experience proved to be an epiphany for the geophysicist, then working in the oil and gas sector. “I realised that (the need for) lithium is everywhere,” she told me, referring to the rare mineral that phone batteries need to function. “So I started asking where it could come from.”
Returning home to Canada, Ms Hall, now 49, decided to look for answers. So in 2018 she founded a company called Summit Nanotech, which unlocks lithium from brine using a proprietary technology that the company claims produces fewer carbon emissions and inflicts less environmental damage than traditional methods of extraction. Backed by investors including BHP and Temasek, the group is now offering its services in countries such as Chile, the world’s second-largest lithium producer, in a bid to expand the mineral’s supply chain.
