LEWISVILLE — Smackover Lithium has signed its second commercial offtake agreement for its Lafayette County lithium production facility, meaning that it has secured sufficient backing to proceed with project financing and a final investment decision.
The agreement is with LG Energy Solution. LG Energy Solution is a leading manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for energy storage systems and electric vehicles.
Smackover Lithium is a partnership between Standard Lithium Ltd. through its subsidiaries, and Equinor, through subsidiaries of Equinor ASA.
Under the terms of this binding take-or-pay offtake Agreement, Smackover Lithium’s South West Arkansas Project will supply LG Energy Solution with 8,000 metric tonnes per year of battery-quality lithium carbonate over a 10-year period following the start of commercial production.
Pricing and other key commercial terms are subject to confidentiality but are structured to support anticipated financing for the project.
David Park, chief executive officer of Standard Lithium, said, “We are excited to be entering into this agreement with LG Energy Solution, one of the world’s leading battery producers with a diverse and global customer base and a presence in many dynamic and growing industry segments.
“The agreement further anchors our customer offtake portfolio, complementing the contract with Trafigura we announced in March of this year, and is another major milestone in the development of the SWA Project.
“We have now secured a vast majority of the offtake agreements needed to move forward with our project financing plans and a final investment decision. We expect this to be the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial partnership whereby we will provide LG Energy Solution with a long-term supply of U.S.-based and sustainably produced battery-quality lithium carbonate.”
“We are pleased to begin this partnership with Smackover Lithium and the agreement marks another step toward establishing a solid and resilient supply chain that keeps our products competitive in key strategic markets,” said Kang Yeol Lee, Procurement Center leader of LG Energy Solution. “By bringing both battery production and sourcing to the U.S., we will deliver competitive and sustainable products to our customers driving the global energy storage and EV markets.”
The SWA Project is seeking customer offtake agreements totaling roughly 80% of the 22,500 metric tonnes of annual nameplate lithium carbonate capacity for its initial phase. Combining this agreement with the previously announced Trafigura offtake agreement for 8,000 metric tonnes per year over 10 years means that roughly 90% of the total targeted offtake volume has now been committed.
The partnership remains in advanced discussions with several prospective customers and aims to conclude the offtake process shortly with the expectation of signing one additional smaller agreement.
The customer offtake process is being run in conjunction with the SWA Project financing process and is critical to supporting the contemplated debt size, duration and structure.
Smackover Lithium provided a financing update on December 9th, 2025 highlighting indications of interest for over $1 billion in project debt from three major Export Credit Agencies (“ECAs”). The due diligence and other customary processes by those ECAs in furtherance of the Project financing are well under way.
The partnership is targeting a final investment decision this year.
Smackover Lithium said that construction of saltwater brine field to supply a processing facility five miles south of Lewisville Construction is planned to begin promptly following the final investment decision, enabling first commercial production of battery-quality lithium carbonate in 2029.
The only existing lithium production facility in South Arkansas is Standard Lithium’s pilot plant near El Dorado.
ExxonMobil, Albemarle Corporation and Chevron all have extensive leases in Columbia, Lafayette and/or Miller counties for the potential production of lithium from salt water formations some 11,000 feet below the surface. None of them has yet committed to the construction of lithium processing facilities.
Tetra Technologies also has saltwater leases and has a bromine construction facility under construction south of Stamps. The company has said that it could expand into lithium production at that facility at a future date, but hasn’t announced any plans to do so.
If you are distributing your group’s news only through Facebook, your group is talking to itself and not reaching out to the entire community. Get your news or organization noticed by more than 11,000 daily visitors by sending information to our email address:
magnoliareporter.com is moving away from its social media account on X (formerly Twitter). Join us on Bluesky by downloading the Bluesky app and becoming a member. See what we post at @magnolia-reporter.bsky.social .