Amanda Hall
Amanda Hall is founder and CEO of Summit Nanotech, a Calgary-based company focused on producing green lithium by using applications of nanotechnology to optimize industrial processes in the mining sector. As a professional geophysicist and former laboratory scientist with more than 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, she leads the company with the commitment to develop solutions for a new age of transitioning to clean energy that have profound effects on the planet. “We’re changing the way lithium is mined, using new technology to help extract it more efficiently and sustainably,” she shares.
Founded in 2018, Summit Nanotech’s specialization is as unique as its personnel, with an all-female management committee—a rarity in the mining sector. “We’re all diversely educated and credible, with decades of experience in the resource extraction space. My team leads with passion, agility and humility; you don’t often see this caliber of female leadership in one company,” Amanda explains. She and her team of experts are working to provide economically viable solutions for the lithium extraction process to help meet the growing energy storage needs of the future.
With the increased adoption of electric cars, boats, and other vehicles, stationary storage for renewable energy and society’s voracious appetite for cell phone and other transportable technology—all of which are powered by lithium ion batteries—mining companies are expanding lithium production processes significantly to keep up with demand. Amanda and her team of engineers and scientists are determined to ensure that this is done with wisdom. “We’ve created a technological process to take lithium out of natural occurring brine using no fresh water and creating significantly less chemical waste, while doubling yield and reducing the time to product recovery,” she explains. “This is an opportunity to be part of a rapidly growing sector and we feel that it is our responsibility as global citizens to ensure that increased production occurs with the least environmental impact. We don’t want to repeat extraction mistakes made in the past by scaling up without foresight.”
Summit Nanotech is supporting the energy transition in Canada by working with industry and the government to better understand Canada’s lithium resources. They are transitioning professionals and skills from the oil & gas sector, bringing this knowledge into a new Canadian lithium sector. “At Summit Nanotech, we’re creating jobs and training scientists to think outside the box. Albert Einstein said that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” she shares.
Amanda’s passion for her field and her commitment to developing new technologies that meet the needs of an evolving energy landscape have garnered her multiple industry awards, including Women in Cleantech, Energy New Ventures, Inventures and inclusion in NACO’s Top 30 Most Promising Start-ups in Canada.
Amanda Hall
Founder & CEO
Summit Nanotech
Download the Top 100 Canadian Professionals magazine and check out Amanda's feature on page 45.