Zelandez, a technology provider to the lithium brine industry, announced Tuesday its new borehole formation tester (BFT) is available to lithium developers worldwide.
The BFT is the slimmest pump-through formation tester ever made, Zelandez said, and can analyze fluid underground in real-time and capture multiple clean lithium brine samples from a well for further testing.
It is designed to address lithium miners’ needs by measuring aquifer pressure, analyzing fluids downhole in real-time, and obtaining representative brine samples, the company said, adding that it reduces the costs of lithium brine development when compared to the less accurate incumbent ‘packer testing method’.
The BFT enables the lithium mining industry to conduct rigless pressure and permeability testing and fluid sampling in slim boreholes down to 122mm (PQ) and provides testing and sampling in low permeability, laminated, fractured, unconsolidated, and heterogeneous formations, the company said.
It enhances lithium miners’ decision-making by delivering real-time access to actionable aquifer data. Through enhanced definition of the complex sub-surfaces poor well deliverability is mitigated, and it enables miners to understand better and meet their reinjection requirements, Zelandez said, adding that developers no longer need to depend on large rig-deployed sampling to retrieve brine samples from below ground.
“The BFT was built to address the specific challenges of aquifer testing and fluid sampling in lithium brine exploration and production. Instead of it taking weeks, it delivers results within hours or days,” Zelandez CEO Gene Morgan said in a news release.
“While formation testers are commonplace in the oil and gas industry, their size and cost have made them impractical for use in the brine field,” Morgan said. “The BFT has miniaturized this technology for lithium miners.”