Jan 7 2015
Western Lithium USA Corporation ("Western Lithium", the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has shipped its first order of Hectatone™ drilling additive product on January 2, 2015, from its Hectatone™ plant in Fernley, Nevada.
The montmorillonite based product is an organophilic viscosifier commonly used in the drilling industry as an efficient and economical product for viscosity control, emulsion stability, fluid loss and solids suspension in oil based drilling fluids. The product was made to specifications requested by Western Lithium's Houston based distributor Raw Materials Corporation. Production based samples have now been sent to other potential customers that have expressed an interest in the purchase of this product.
"Our team put in a significant effort over the holidays to achieve steady-state operations at our Hectatone™ plant so that we could start the new year with production," said Western Lithium's CEO, Jay Chmelauskas. "Our focus at Hectatone™ for 2015 will now turn to production, service, sales, and research."
Frank B. Wright Jr., President of Hectatone™ further stated that "Now that the plant is operational, we plan to manufacture other Hectatone™ products in the weeks and months ahead as potential customers begin to recognize Hectatone™ as a reliable supplier with a state-of-the-art facility, high performance competitive products, and service that is focused on the drilling industry."
The ramp up of the Hectatone™ plant located in Fernley, Nevada was successful during December 2014, to achieve steady state operations and to make product to industry specifications. Additional plant modifications and operational procedural improvements are still expected over the coming months to meet nameplate capacity. The plant is currently operating with a crew for one shift.
Western Lithium has re-commenced lithium demonstration plant activities in Germany starting January 5th. The lithium demonstration plant will be used to continue to test equipment and design parameters in 2015. In addition, design activities for a lithium hydroxide plant are approximately fifty percent complete to finalize the design of Western Lithium's proprietary lithium hydroxide circuit for the production of high quality lithium product. The Company expects to test its lithium hydroxide circuit as part of its lithium demonstration plant campaign in 2015.
Source: http://www.westernlithium.com/