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A company developing a major lithium project in South Arkansas has signed an estimated $1.5 billion agreement to supply battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution with lithium produced from the state\u2019s Smackover Formation.<\/p>\n
Smackover Lithium announced Monday, August 31st, that it entered into a binding 10-year agreement with LG Energy Solution for 8,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate annually.<\/p>\n
The agreement is expected to begin once commercial production starts at the Southwest Arkansas Project.<\/p>\n
The approximately $1.5 billion figure represents the estimated value of lithium to be purchased by LG over the 10-year agreement and is not a $1.5 billion investment by LG in Arkansas. Specific pricing and other commercial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n
Smackover Lithium is a partnership between Standard Lithium and Equinor developing the project across approximately 30,000 acres of brine leases in Lafayette and Columbia counties. A central processing facility is planned south of Lewisville.<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s first phase is designed to produce approximately 22,500 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate annually using brine drawn from the underground Smackover Formation.<\/p>\n
The lithium would be extracted from the brine before the depleted brine is reinjected underground.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s agreement is the project\u2019s second major long-term supply deal this year.<\/p>\n
Smackover Lithium previously reached a 10-year agreement with Trafigura in March for another 8,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually.<\/p>\n
Together, the agreements account for 16,000 metric tons of planned annual production. Smackover Lithium said it has now secured approximately 90% of the amount of production it intends to commit through long-term agreements and is discussing an additional smaller agreement with another potential customer.<\/p>\n
The agreements are also expected to support efforts to finance construction of the Southwest Arkansas Project. Smackover Lithium has reported indications of interest for more than $1 billion in potential project debt from export credit agencies, which are conducting due diligence on the development.<\/p>\n
The project has separately received a $225 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Federal officials completed an environmental review earlier this year and issued a finding of no significant impact for the proposed development.<\/p>\n
Smackover Lithium is targeting a final investment decision on the project in 2026. If approved for construction, commercial lithium production is currently targeted to begin in 2029.<\/p>\n
LG Energy Solution is a South Korean battery manufacturer serving electric vehicle and energy-storage markets.<\/p>\n
The company said the Arkansas agreement is part of its effort to expand its battery-material supply chain in the United States.<\/p>\n
The Southwest Arkansas Project is part of a broader effort to develop lithium resources within the Smackover Formation and establish a domestic supply of the mineral used extensively in rechargeable batteries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A company developing a major lithium project in South Arkansas has signed an estimated $1.5 billion agreement to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[70410,70161,19602,33980,17909,71177,1576,315,747,733,467,17699,66377,70158,3585,4896],"class_list":["post-139773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lg-energy-solution","tag-70410","tag-arkansas","tag-auto","tag-billion","tag-deal","tag-draft","tag-energy","tag-lg","tag-lg-energy","tag-lg-energy-solution","tag-lithium","tag-project","tag-signs","tag-smackover","tag-solution","tag-supply"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}