Anson’s iron-removal test points to a new Green River revenue option

Third-party brine passes iron-removal test

Anson Resources Limited (ASX:ASN) has produced an encouraging result for a piece of technology that could eventually sit alongside its lithium project: a single pass through its proprietary pre-treatment process reduced iron in third-party brine from 13.34 parts per million to an undetectable level.

The test was conducted at Anson’s Lithium Innovation Center using the generation 1 process system. The company says air injected into the brine caused the iron to precipitate immediately, leaving a clear brine ready for the next stage of a direct lithium extraction process. The announcement does not disclose the identity of the third party, the scale of the test or whether the result has been replicated under continuous operating conditions.

Lithium was retained within the company’s tolerance

The important qualification is what remained in the brine. Lithium concentration moved from 130.13 ppm before treatment to 127.41 ppm afterwards, while Anson says the change sits within its stated plus-or-minus 5% variation allowance. Boron remained at 187 ppm, while bromine rose from 899 ppm to 967 ppm and sodium and chloride declined modestly.

Anson’s stated rationale is process economics rather than iron removal for its own sake. Iron can coat the resin used in direct lithium extraction, reducing the surface area available to attract lithium over time. The company says removing iron beforehand could improve lithium recovery and extend resin life, with potential benefits for operating and capital costs. Those benefits remain prospective: the announcement provides no quantified saving, recovery uplift or resin-life estimate.

Patent application and possible technology sales

Anson has submitted a patent application and is discussing the possible sale of the process to other companies extracting lithium from brines. Any commercialisation could provide an additional revenue source to support the Green River Lithium Project without diluting existing shareholders, according to the company. That ambition sits alongside final Green River approval, which was reported as clearing the project’s last major planned approval while leaving further funding requirements in place.

The test therefore strengthens the commercial story around Anson’s process, but it is not yet a commercial milestone. There is no binding technology sale, licensing agreement or disclosed price, and the work used the first-generation system rather than a demonstrated production-scale installation. The next evidence will need to come from broader validation, scale-up and a clearer link between iron removal and the economics of Green River’s planned direct lithium extraction flowsheet.