Basic Motors stated Tuesday its enterprise capital arm will lead a $50 million financing spherical for EnergyX, a Texas-based startup growing a extra environment friendly methodology to extract and course of lithium from salt flats.

Lithium is a essential element in batteries for electrical autos. Beneath the deal, GM may even assist develop EnergyX’s expertise and may have first proper of refusal to purchase lithium from any tasks developed by the startup.

EnergyX demonstrated its expertise with a pilot plant in South America’s “Lithium Triangle,” an space of salt flats masking components of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile that incorporates over half of the world’s identified lithium reserves.

At present, miners within the space extract lithium by pumping water underground to flush out the mineral, then permitting the ensuing brine to evaporate in a collection of ponds. The method is comparatively low-cost, nevertheless it solely recovers 30% to 40% of the full lithium — whereas utilizing large quantities of water and land.

EnergyX’s pilot plant, which opened final yr, has demonstrated that its expertise can get well 90% or extra of the lithium in brine whereas utilizing a lot much less vitality, water and land than present processes.

EnergyX plans to make use of the brand new funding to construct 5 bigger demonstration vegetation in North America and South America.

For GM, a key precedence is to unlock a North American provide of lithium, which is not cost-competitive with international provides utilizing present extraction strategies. The auto large believes that EnergyX’s expertise might cut back prices sufficient to make North American lithium mining viable, whereas minimizing the environmental affect of extracting the mineral.

GM will report its first-quarter outcomes earlier than U.S. markets open April 25.