Lithium Evaporation Pond, Atacama desert (Chile)

Talking of non-metallic mining, lithium is one of the most demanded products and the one generating most investments in mining. The company ROCKWOOD LITHIUM, located in El Salar de Atacama (Chile) and belonging to the American ALBEMARLE, is the main operator of this product. Due to some issues with PVC geomembrane, Rockwood Lithium looked for alternatives to cover the pools of concentrated product. The client decided to do some tests with the COLETANCHE for lining three of the evaporation pools. It required 8 months of work and evaporation process until reaching the level of product concentration desired . It was therefore proved that COLETANCHE geomembrane could perfectly resist all physical and chemical constraints.