American Lithium's Falchani Pilot Plant Fully Commissioned and Operating

American Lithium Corp. (LI) announced on September 16, 2026, that the pilot plant at its Falchani Lithium Project in Lima, Peru, is fully installed and operational. The company stated that all major components are currently undergoing testing, with operating systems performing as expected.

Recent laboratory bench test work, which utilized individual pilot-plant components in a semi-continuous process, achieved an average lithium extraction rate of 88.7%, with a range of 88.0%–89.9%. This performance marks an improvement over the 80.0% lithium recovery figure used in the company’s February 2024 Preliminary Economic Assessment. Core systems individually validated during these tests include impurity removal, controlled cooling, pre-neutralization, neutralization, crystallization, centrifugal separation, and consumables reaction management. American Lithium noted that lithium losses across several process stages were reduced to fractions of a percent per phase.

The next phase of development involves full end-to-end flowsheet validation in continuous mode. This process is expected to run for more than three months, processing between 6 and 10 tonnes of Falchani mineralization. The company claims the flowsheet can produce battery-grade lithium carbonate with a purity exceeding 99.5%, attributed to the naturally low impurities in the material. The release contained no new drill results, updated resource estimates, financing announcements, or commercial agreements.

American Lithium Corp. (LI) issued an operational update on May 31, 2026, rather than an earnings release, meaning no new revenue, earnings, or balance-sheet results were reported. The company confirmed that pilot-plant equipment had arrived at the Falchani site and that test work had been initiated, a milestone consistent with its prior disclosures.

In an October 9, 2025 release, American Lithium disclosed process-flow optimization efforts that included approximately 88% lithium recovery and reduced sulfuric acid consumption, while also noting that pilot-plant testing was expected to begin within a few months. The latest update refined that recovery figure to 88.7%, a modest improvement achieved through laboratory bench testing using individual pilot components rather than a full continuous pilot run.

Because the full end-to-end continuous run has not yet occurred, scale-up risk remains. The company continues to operate as a pre-revenue entity under a going-concern caution, with no immediate impact on cash flow, financing, or project economics.

American Lithium Corp. is a pre-revenue critical-minerals developer with projects in Nevada and Peru. Its three main assets are the Falchani hard-rock lithium project in southern Peru, the TLC claystone lithium project in Nevada, and the Macusani uranium project in Peru, which is described as the largest undeveloped uranium project in Latin America. The company states all three projects have completed preliminary economic assessments.

Falchani is described as one of the world’s largest hard-rock lithium deposits. Its February 2024 PEA used an 80% lithium recovery assumption, which the latest lab work claims to exceed at 88.7%. The October 2025 release disclosed a Falchani resource body totaling 953 Mt and measured-plus-indicated cesium resources exceeding 400,000 t.

TLC Phase 1 target production is about 24,000 t LCE/year, with Phase 2 expansion targeting about 48,000 t LCE/year. Macusani is the subject of a proposed spin-out, with updated technical work previously said to be targeted for Q1 2026.