WSJ Article on Standard Lithium and others

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Cliff_N
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WSJ Article on Standard Lithium and others

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-surprising-new-source-of-lithium-for-batteries-744463c4?mod=hp_user_preferences_pos1#cxrecs_s

E3 Lithium, which plans to begin operations at an extraction pilot plant in the third quarter of 2023, hopes to initially produce 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide per year. It aims to pump brine from a depth of 1.5 miles, potentially using existing wells as well as new ones. The liquid will then likely be sent through pipelines to a facility where a sorbent material will capture the lithium and reject impurities to create a concentrated liquid, which then will be further refined into battery-grade material.

The Smackover formation of southern Arkansas is seen as one of the most promising regions in North America to test and deploy the technology. Exxon Mobil this year purchased drilling rights to a significant lithium prospect in the region, which it intends to develop, according to people familiar with the matter. The metal’s concentration there can be over 500 milligrams per liter, by some estimates, compared with around 75 milligrams per liter in the Leduc field.

Exxon Mobil declined to comment.

Chemical companies in the region have long produced brine from depleted oil fields to collect bromine, another valuable chemical in the saltwater. Now, lithium companies want to get a piece of the action.

Standard Lithium has been operating an industrial-scale plant in the Smackover area since 2020 with German chemical maker Lanxess. Brine, which Lanxess processes to produce bromine, flows into the facility at the rate of about 3,000 gallons a minute. Using the same brine, Standard Lithium expects to produce just under 6,000 metric tons of lithium annually from this plant and targets a production of 50,000 metric tons across the company’s projects in Arkansas, chief executive Mintak says.

Others are more skeptical. Amanda Brock, the chief executive of Aris Water Solutions, a water-management company in the Permian, says that it has looked into producing lithium from wastewater, but that it doesn’t see near-term potential given lithium prices and production costs.

“We would love to find a way to cost-effectively extract the lithium,” she says.
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