Occidental, BHE Renewables form joint venture

Occidental (OXY) and BHE Renewables, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BRK.A), announced they formed a joint venture for the demonstration and deployment of TerraLithium’s Direct Lithium Extraction, DLE, and associated technologies to extract and commercially produce high-purity lithium compounds from geothermal brine. TerraLithium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental, has patented DLE technologies that have the potential to process any lithium-containing brine into a responsibly sourced supply of high-purity lithium. BHE Renewables operates 10 geothermal power plants in California’s Imperial Valley, which process 50,000 gallons of lithium-rich brine per minute to produce 345 megawatts of clean energy. The joint venture has begun a project at BHE Renewables’ Imperial Valley geothermal facility to demonstrate the feasibility of using the TerraLithium DLE technology to produce lithium in an environmentally safe manner.