Lithium Uptate
Lithium continues to be a hot topic in the area because it has the potential to radically change the region’s economic landscape. After the first of the year, we will be reporting on two significant lithium plants moving into the area. This week, there was a newsworthy item to come across the wire.
Standard Lithium announced on December 19 that SWA Lithium and Koch Technology Solutions are teaming up to “collaborate to design, build, and operate a Field-Pilot DLE Facility to confirm engineering design for SWA Project.
They reported that the samples of Battery-Quality Lithium Carbonate produced from the field-based pilot will be used in the qualification process with potential Off-Take partners.
The release noted that WA Lithium, the Joint Venture (“JV”) between Standard Lithium Ltd. (“Standard Lithium” or the “Company”) and Equinor ASA (“Equinor”) which is developing the South West Arkansas Project (“SWA” or the “Project”), is pleased to announce that, in partnership with Koch Technology Solutions (“KTS”), it has successfully designed, built, commissioned, and is now operating, a pilot Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) plant at the South West Arkansas Project. The pilot DLE plant is processing brine directly from SWA to confirm engineering design parameters for the Project and provide samples of battery-quality lithium carbonate for use in the qualification process with potential off-take partners.
This is big news for the area because it means that the process appears to be moving in the right direction for lithium drilling, exploration, extraction, and processing in the region. Standard Lithium is just one big player in the market and Koch, Inc is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, and is the second largest privately held company in the United States.
Regional Lithium exploration could be a welcome boost to the region that has begun to see some other future growth in the Texarkana area. As we have mentioned before, Northeast Texas is sitting on one of the highest-grade lithium deposits in the world.
Standard Lithium’s Director and President, Dr. Andy Robinson commented: “The Standard Lithium and Equinor teams, along with our various engineering partners are working hard on the design for our first commercial lithium facility, which will be constructed in southwestern Arkansas in Lafayette and Columbia counties. To date, in order to support that design work, we have been using the huge amount of DLE and flowsheet performance data that we’ve collected at our demonstration plant, combined with testwork completed by KTS using our SWA Project brines. This field-based pilot DLE plant is the final step in ensuring that we have exactly the right data to confirm our design and be sure that we know how our commercial plant will operate once constructed.”
“This pilot DLE plant is using real brine, collected in real- time from one of our Project wells (the IPC well), and we are using the same flowsheet as our commercial lithium facility to produce an intermediate lithium chloride solution, the same as what we do every day in our demonstration plant. We’ll then ship this solution to several selected vendor partners so that they can convert the lithium chloride solution to a battery-quality lithium carbonate product. This will serve two functions; first, it will provide us with lithium carbonate samples produced from the Project that we can use in negotiations with possible off-take partners and start the qualification process; second, it can also help the JV in selecting our preferred carbonate equipment vendor as we work through the design and partner evaluation process.
The success of this pilot DLE plant is due to the great support and collaboration we have with Mission Creek Resources LLC, and reflects our commitment to form close local partnerships and working relationships. We look forward to keeping our investors informed with data from this important derisking step, and continuing our work towards becoming the first new lithium-from-brine project in North America in over 50 years.”
Highlights of this field-based pilot include:
The heart of the plant is the same KTS Li-Pro™ Lithium Selective Sorption (Li-Pro LSS) technology, as described in our recent news release (28 October 2024) Continued support and integration from the KTS team to allow full engineering design and optimization for the JV’s first commercial facility; Brine is being supplied from the JV’s IPC well, which provides a representative brine composition for the SWA Project; Brine supply and operation of the pilot DLE plant is ongoing and expected to continue until late-January 2025, at which point sufficient operational experience and design data will have been acquired; Concluding operation of the pilot, it is expected to produce approximately 1,000 gallons (3,785 litres) of concentrated and purified lithium chloride solution (6% LiCl solution); The 1,000 gallons of 6% LiCl solution will be sent off-site to three separate potential carbonate equipment vendors; The three vendors will produce, in total, approximately 30 kg of battery-quality lithium carbonate; and, The battery-quality lithium carbonate produced will be used for the first phase(s) of qualification with potential offtake partners, and the performance of the vendors will be used to inform the JV with respect to vendor selection for the carbonate portion of the first commercial facility.
In the last update, the Journal Sun noted the challenge between landowners in Arkansas and some of the big companies seeking mineral rights. The Journal-Sun reached out to James Brooks from Liger to get his reaction to the news.
“I can’t speak on much that is happening in Arkansas, but I am watching what shakes out over there and really don’t know how the people over there have not come out with pitchforks and torches. As I understand it, the state will set the minimum royalty, so at least it is just the minimum, even if they take that a little too literally. Leasing for the Lithium play here in Cass County is still going strong.
“The bonus monies given are creeping higher over time. The royalty rates given are pretty well static. At this juncture, you have a choice between bonus money and royalty. For example, you may get $500 per acre bonus, but you will be stuck at a royalty between 3 and 6.25%. However, you could go with Liger Interests, who might only go so far as a $250 p er acre bonus but offers a 10% royalty.
The choice is yours, but before grabbing a large check betting the development will not materialize, ask yourself what happens if it does. These units will be large; they will not need your place for a surface location; they might not need it for a pipeline; but they will need it for their unit.
“There’s a substantial difference between what we anticipate a royalty check would look like at 10% vs 6.25%. So far as I am aware, Liger is the only group still offering the 10% royalty on brine-sourced minerals. “
Liger is one of the various interests in the area seeking partnerships. It is important to read any contract you sign and find a good land attorney to seek advice to understand how long the contract lasts and what you are getting for your return.