Soda Ash Transport, Solvent Extraction and Salt Cooling System, Capricorn Project

6 of April of 2026

Industrial Sector

Mining

Client

Echeverría Izquierdo Soluciones Industriales (EISI)/ Albemarle

Location

Antofagasta

Date

2017- 2018

Service Area

Engineering & Procurement

Solutions

For the transport of soda ashes, the details engineering for the foundations, land improvements, topography, soil mechanics, electrical and instrumental pipes were carried out, as well as the piping system for air, water and compressed air supplies, plus the modeling and design of support throughout the layout of the soda ash transport pipe.
For the solvent extraction plant, detailed engineering was carried out in all its disciplines.
And for the salt cooling system was carried out the basic and detailed engineering and the procurement management service and bidding bases.
In all the projects we worked with 3D models, integrating the design of PA Engineering with the vendor and the client model, to visualize the possible interference's of the project.

Albemarle is developing the Capricorn project, or expansion of the La Negra III Plant, to increase the production capacity of its La Negra plant from its current capacity of 44,000 metric tons per year to 80,000 metric tons per year of lithium carbonate.

As part of this expansion, Pares&Alvarez first develops the detailed engineering of the soda ash transport system, whose objective is to take it from the new storage cellar to the ash wetting system. This also included an air transport system, designed by Noltec, with a layout of around 450 miters installed in the main piperack of the expansion project of the La Negra III plant. During the project, the technical bases for the purchase of equipment were also made. The system considered structures, pipes, equipment, and a water cooler.

In parallel, PA Engineering developed detailed engineering in all disciplines, with a strong field support component to the EISI EPC project, of the solvent extraction system to remove boron from the brine with lithium.

Finally, PA Engineering engineered install a salt chiller screw in the thermal evaporation plant for the generation of condensate directly for Albemarle.

La Negra Receives the concentrated brine from the Salar Plant and performs, first, a purification process and then a chemical conversion process. This plant was the first of its kind in Chile and began operations in 1984, when Plant I made the first production of Lithium Carbonate.

In May 2017, Albemarle inaugurated Plant II, the most modern in Latin America to produce battery grade lithium carbonate, a high value-added material essential for the energy storage market and the development of batteries for electric vehicles.

This new plant, which doubles the production capacity of The Black Chemical Plant, responds to the company’s expansion plan and the commitment to consolidate Chile as one of the major playersin the global lithium industry and, specifically, Antofagasta, as the epicenter of the technological revolution associated with lithium.

The new plant delivers a product of high quality and added value, according to the technical requirements of lithium battery manufacturers. For this, technological improvements were made including less use of energy and water, and an increase in the efficiency of the processing of the concentrated brine from the Salar Plant.

Plant III is currently being built, which will transform La Negra Chemical Plant into one of the largest lithium carbonate production complexes in the world by doubling the current production capacity, according to information obtained on the Albemarle website.