Lithium and battery technology company Energy Exploration Technologies announced a $450-million investment commitment from Global Emerging Markets (GEM). The proceeds from this capital investment will further the company’s commercialization efforts of its direct lithium extraction and refinery technologies.

Created in 2018, EnergyX is a startup focused on providing efficient, sustainable solutions to challenges facing global lithium supply chains from the raw battery materials extraction process to refining and the manufacturing of next generation batteries. The “brine-to-battery” company has filed more than 50 patents to this end, and is developing its proprietary Lithium Ion Transport and Separation (LiTAS) and Solid State Lithium Metal Battery (SoLiS) technologies.

Its LiTAS technology has been piloted in the Lithium Triangle in South America and increases lithium production from 30% in existing systems up to 94% recovery rate for that particular project.

Founded in 1991, GEM (Global Emerging Markets) is a $3.4-billion alternative investment firm with offices in Paris, New York, and the Bahamas. GEM oversees a wide range of developing market investment vehicles and has executed more than 530 transactions in 75 countries. The degree of operational control, risk-adjusted return, and liquidity profile of each investment vehicle varies. GEM and its partners have access to Small-Mid Cap Management Buyouts, Private Investments in Public Equities, and select venture investments through the family of funds and investment vehicles.

A tech-heavy ESG company mining in the emerging markets is a rare find. GEM is delighted to partner with EnergyX, a leader and innovator in the complicated and historically inefficient Lithium extraction space. From the historic pilot extraction program in Bolivia to the material science patents out of Austin TX, EnergyX is leading the way in maximizing Lithium recovery and asset utilization in an environmentally and socially conscious way.

—Jonathan Collins, Managing Director of The GEM Group

In this tailored agreement, EnergyX will control the amount and timing of drawdowns under this $450-million facility with no minimum subscription obligation and will issue shares of common stock over a 36-month period after a public listing.

EnergyX completed an active tender process with Bolivia’s lithium company YLB, where one of its LiTAS pilot plants operated from early 2022 rendering promising results. Although YLB initially elected to move in a different direction for that specific tender, EnergyX still believes there are different opportunities and angles to work with YLB providing services to their lithium industry.

EnergyX also recently signed an agreement with MOBI LATAM, a Bolivian electric micro-mobility startup to build battery swap stations using EnergyX’s SoLiS technology.