Revolutionary Lithium Sampling Tool to Boost Discovery and Production from Brine Resources

The Borehole Formation Tester released by Zelandez will deliver actionable lithium-aquifer data to lithium brine developers, helping to produce more lithium and reducing the cost of lithium exploration.

Zelandez, the leading provider of technology to the lithium brine industry, today announced the availability of its new Borehole Formation Tester (BFT) to lithium developers worldwide.

• The slimmest pump-through formation tester ever made has been delivered to the lithium sector.
• The advanced tool can analyze fluid underground in real-time and capture multiple clean lithium brine samples from a well, for further testing.
• This technology helps increase lithium production and reduce costs for lithium developers.

The BFT is the world’s slimmest pump-through formation tester designed to specifically address lithium miners’ needs by measuring aquifer pressure, analyzing fluids downhole in real-time, and obtaining representative brine samples. It significantly reduces the costs of lithium brine development when compared to the less accurate incumbent ‘packer testing method’.

Lithium developers will no longer depend on large expensive rig-deployed sampling, which has high supply costs, to retrieve brine samples from below ground. The BFT reduces the time needed to sample quality lithium brine. Contaminated brine samples will become a thing of the past.

The BFT provides detailed pressure and productivity data and allows clients' hydrogeology teams to optimize brine and lithium production. It speeds up the development period required to bring lithium to market at a lower cost.

Currently, no product or service offers lithium operations the level of pressure measurement, fluid characterization, and reservoir testing that the BFT does.

“The world needs more lithium. The old way of sampling lithium was just too slow and too cumbersome. It was making it hard to find new lithium brine resources and to bring more lithium to market. The Borehole Formation Tester changes that - it changes the game for lithium developers. The BFT is another example of Zelandez innovating specifically for the needs of the lithium market,” said Gene Morgan, CEO of Zelandez.

“The BFT was built to address the specific challenges of aquifer testing and fluid sampling in lithium brine exploration and production. Instead of it taking weeks, it delivers results within hours or days.”

The BFT enables the lithium mining industry to conduct rigless pressure and permeability testing and fluid sampling in slim boreholes down to 122mm (PQ). The BFT provides testing and sampling in low permeability, laminated, fractured, unconsolidated, and heterogeneous formations. It enhances lithium miners’ decision- making by delivering real-time access to actionable aquifer data. Through enhanced definition of the complex sub-surfaces poor well deliverability is mitigated. 

It also enables miners to understand better and meet their reinjection requirements.

“While Formation Testers are commonplace in the Oil and Gas industry, their size and cost have made them impractical for use in the brinefield. The BFT has miniaturized this technology for lithium miners” adds Morgan.

Zelandez’s BFT serves the testing and sampling needs of the lithium brine, groundwater, hard rock, coal seam gas, natural hydrogen, and helium sectors.

Zelandez is the leader in brinefield services and provides a comprehensive suite of technology for lithium brine explorers and producers, including full wrap-around integrated project management, modular lithium production plants, sensors, and expert geoscience and engineering know-how. Zelandez works with the majority of lithium mining companies in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and North America.