A publicly traded lithium company in Canada has found fresh financing from an unusual source: the government of Alberta.

‍What’s happening:‍

• E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL) has received $5M CAD from the government of Alberta to accelerate the development of their Integrated Lithium Brine Demonstration Facility located near Olds, Alberta
  
• The new funding comes from the Emissions Reduction Alberta Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Fund
  

The big idea:‍

• E3 Lithium is constructing a leading edge facility which is aiming to harness locally available sources of lithium brine and be able to turn it into battery grade lithium carbonate
  

Why it matters:‍

• The Canadian government has been deepening their commitment to natural resources and critical minerals, previously announcing more than a billion dollars in new funding to support mining companies with operations in Canada
  

Going deeper:‍

• The new facility being built by E3 Lithium is the first one of its kind in all of Canada and will be closely monitored to better understand the environmental impact as well as the capability to be replicated at a commercial scale in other parts of the country where lithium brine is naturally abundant
  
• Alberta has a deep history of building out large scale energy infrastructure and has a friendly regulatory environment for developing commercial scale projects for oil and gas, as well as critical minerals such as lithium

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