The plant - which can be "quickly expanded" to produce up to 20,000 tonnes of LiCl per year - is now undergoing factory acceptance testing, after which its brine acceptance will be tested and it will produce LiCl.
The intention is to be able to rapidly deploy the modular design for onsite assembly and move between multiple lithium-bearing brine resources.
"Not only have we developed patented, proprietary technology that allows for the rapid extraction of lithium-chloride, but our system uses virtually no chemicals, allowing for minimal production of wastewater," the company's CEO John Burba said.
Burba - a pioneer in the field of lithium-extraction technology - said the modular plant demonstrates a "fundamental advancement" on direct lithium-extraction patents that he filed in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lithium throughout the Americas - which makes up for around 40% of global lithium production - mostly comes from brine. Traditional methods of extracting the lithium from brine was through evaporation ponds, which can take months or years.
DLE can speed up the process dramatically.
International Battery Metals was quoted on the Canadian Securities Exchange at C$4.65/share (US$3.62/share) on March 15. The stock has climbed from around C$0.80/share in November last year.
The company had a market capitalisation of C$625.81 million.
