Summit Nanotech Launches Rapid‑Validation DLE Demonstration Plant to Derisk Global Lithium Projects
SANTIAGO, Chile, Feb. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ – Summit Nanotech Corporation (“Summit”) has commenced operations at its advanced Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) demonstration plant in Santiago, delivering rapid, commercial‑grade validation for lithium developers facing growing pressure to accelerate development timelines and reduce project risk.
Summit’s Santiago plant builds on significant technical progress, including a successful field deployment in Northern Chile in 2025. Engineered to replicate site‑specific variability and operational stressors, the system gives developers an early view of commercial viability and repeatable, modular designs for deployment. The scale and maturity of this type of testing, available for contracting by any regional asset owner, is unique in the DLE sector. Summit’s system provides clear visibility into future commercial operating conditions before capital decisions are made.
Paul Barbaro, Summit’s General Manager in Chile, commented:
The sophistication of this system surpasses anything our customers have seen elsewhere,
“Our team works closely with lithium developers to tailor each demo plan to their specific resource. A DLE plant isn’t something you buy off the shelf; it requires rigorous testing, and that’s what this system delivers.”
Summit is accepting global brine for evaluation and will be initiating testing programs with two mining companies in the Lithium Triangle. The Santiago plant complements Summit’s robust pilot plant in Denver, Colorado, which acts as a regional hub for North American customers.
Joe Arencibia, Summit’s President & COO, said:
Lithium developers need certainty before committing hundreds of millions of dollars to large‑scale projects,
“This new system delivers that certainty in a quarter of the time and at a significantly lower cost, allowing customers to validate performance and economics to confidently deploy capital into technologies that really scale.”
This centralized approach shortens time to technical decisions and strengthens the engineering basis for commercial DLE lithium production. Testing at the Santiago facility produces the comprehensive dataset required for commercial design, including:
- Performance metrics and overall system efficiency
- Mass and energy balances
- Process definition and flow diagrams
- Equipment list and systems overview
- Indicative plant layouts and footprint assumptions
- Reliable CapEx and OpEx estimates
Test results feed directly into process designs for projects targeting 5,000+ tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) and serve as a critical step toward derisked, scalable deployment. Interested parties are encouraged to connect with Summit’s team to evaluate their brine compatibility as capacity becomes available.
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Summit Nanotech Launches Rapid‑Validation DLE Demonstration Plant to Derisk Global Lithium Projects, source
