Western Lithium Will Expand Hectatone to Environmental, Feedstock and Industrial Markets

Western Lithium USA (TSX:WLC,OTCQX:WLCDF) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Hectatone Inc. is a certified vendor, and will begin to sell its Hectabind products internationally.

As quoted in the press release:

The Hectabind products will be manufactured at the Company’s new Hectatone™ organoclay facility in Fernley, Nevada. The first shipment of Hectabind product is planned for delivery in June, 2015.

Frank B. Wright, President of Hectatone™, stated that “Hectatone™ continues to innovate to target the entry into established markets for agriculture and industrial applications offering our clay and organoclay based products. In these higher value markets, potentially much larger than the oilfield market, we are planning to deploy products from our Fernley plant, which is now fully operational.”

In addition to Hectabind, the Company has been targeting new markets for its clay and organoclay based products:

• Hectatone™ is collaborating with a major clay producer on a specialty organophilic clay product for environmental applications. The product will service the existing market to remove organic compounds from industrial wastewater effluent.
• The Company’s hectorite based Hectagel product is now going through customer qualifications with a major European chemical supplier to be used for industrial applications. If successful, the Company expects to begin shipment in the third quarter of 2015.
• The Company is developing high performance clay-based additives for industrial coatings, such as epoxy and alkyd coatings, and is working with distributors to introduce these new products.

During the first quarter of the Hectatone™ plant startup, the Company successfully completed manufacturing campaigns for its organophilic bentonite products B-91 and B-92, and its organophilic sepiolite products RM-99 and RM-100. The Company’s B-91 product has now been approved by five drilling service companies, with one company expected to begin field trials. The Company plans to continue qualification of its product line and to manufacture and qualify its other products in the coming months.

Click here to read the Western Lithium USA (TSX:WLC) press release