Arkansas’ Lithium Jackpot: New Tech Turns Ancient Saltwater Into ‘White Gold’
“We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace US imports of lithium and more.”
Tucked beneath the pine forests and farm fields of southwest Arkansas, drillers have stumbled upon a critical mineral jackpot: lithium in the region’s ancient saltwater formations.
Last fall, the U.S. Geological Survey announced that an estimated 5 to 19 million tons of lithium are located in southwestern Arkansas. That is enough lithium to meet the world’s estimated 2030 demand for lithium nine times over.
The lithium is located in the Smackover Formation, a geological formation created by an ancient sea that extends across southwest Arkansas and several neighboring states. Back in the 1920s, oil was discovered in the Smackover Formation, setting off a boom in southern Arkansas.
The Smackover Formation is a deep (roughly 8,000–10,000 feet) carbonate aquifer that has been tapped for decades for oil, gas, and bromine-bearing brines, resulting in extensive existing subsurface data and infrastructure. Recent technological developments now enable the U.S. to tap previously unusable brines to extract lithium, a key component of batteries, pharmaceuticals, glass, ceramics, and military equipment.
Now, with the development of the new Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) process, this quiet corner of the South is suddenly staring at an economic bonanza.
A recent study estimated that there could be enough lithium inside a giant slab of limestone rock, known as the Smackover Formation, to meet the entire global demand for electric cars in 2030 nine times over.
Using DLE, miners will soon be able to pull out lithium-rich saltwater from underground reservoirs in Arkansas, filter out the minerals, and return the processed groundwater to the Earth within 24 hours.
The 2024 estimate of 19 million tons of lithium in the Smackover Formation would be enough to erase the nation’s current dependence on China, which controls roughly 70 percent of the world’s lithium supply.
Katherine Knierim from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said: ‘We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace US imports of lithium and more.’
In DLE, lithium‑rich brine from reservoirs, oilfield water, or geothermal fluids is first pretreated to remove impurities, then passed through lithium‑selective media that capture Li⁺ while most other ions remain in the brine. Then the lithium is stripped into a concentrated solution (often lithium chloride) and further processed into battery‑grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide. Unused brine is typically reinjected underground.
The entire process enables faster production (hours to days), higher recoveries, and a smaller land and water footprint compared with conventional methods.
The new process needs to be scaled, but the company has been refining it since 2024 and anticipates bringing the lithium product to market by 2028. The area is poised for economic growth and long-term prosperity.
The DLE process, developed with Koch Technology Solutions and Equinor, extracts lithium directly from brine, offering a faster and cleaner alternative to traditional mining. However, this method has yet to be proven at a commercial scale in the U.S., making Arkansas a testing ground for the future of lithium production.
The project promises economic benefits for South Arkansas, including new high-skilled jobs, major investments in rural communities, and growth for local businesses. Standard Lithium is also negotiating up to $1 billion in project financing with international lenders and export credit agencies.
Ultimately, what is happening in Smackover feels less like a regional development project and more like a distinctly American magic trick: turning salt water into the modern world’s version of gold.
Engineers and chemists are stitching together advanced membranes, custom sorbents, and real‑time controls in a high‑tech update of the old oil patch, proving that the same ingenuity that once fueled the petroleum age can now power the battery age.
As brine flows down and lithium‑rich solution comes back up, Arkansas becomes a live demonstration that American innovation can rewrite the value of its own geology…reworking the “waste” of yesterday into the strategic treasure of tomorrow, one shimmering stream of salt water at a time.
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Comments
How about that! There is no telling what is lurking in old grounds long abandoned. America is probably walking on or driving on most every element we need to shut China up over rare earths or anything else.
These elements arent rare because there is feck all of it about. They are rare becuase the West doesnt like the mess that comes with extracting those minerals while China couldnt care less about the impact on their environment.
True but I will bet on our technology to clean as we process.
Disclosure I’m an investor with SLI and admit their PR dept has been awol in educating folks about their process. There is no dig, no open pit, it’s two wells dug, they pump the brine aquifer water up and extract the lithium and then send it back down the other hole minus the lithium and “cleaner” if you prefer. Aside from the DLE infrastructure there would be very little other processing, no ugly smoke stack etc. There’s more to it than that but that’s the nut shell explanation. These comment sections always get a lot of misinformation going in them about open pit mining, which historically has been the recovery method of choice along with evaporation ponds. SLI’s and other dle companies tech will change all that.
Never bet against American ingenuity.
It’s that “freedom” concept – “there has to be a way to ___” That is the REAL mindset of
Americans – why we succeeded so often where others did not. We need more of this thinking (vs. guilt trip excuses).
And I will add faith – our nation was founded on moral principles (you know, Judeo-Christian (affected by plusses from older, decent civilizations) basics. And, it works. Time our pols apply this and start holding people accountable. Who knows, if
the pols straighten the messes in MN, make people pay, etc. we just might return to our Founding Principles.
Will it treat TDS? 🙂
No. Next.
Well, maybe. I think you may be talking about the Lithium Medication, not the stuff they put in Tesla batteries, but still, maye
About lithium – Brand names: Priadel, Camcolit, Liskonum, Li-Liquid
https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/lithium/about-lithium/
Lithium is a type of medicine known as a mood stabiliser. It’s used to treat mood disorders such as:
mania (feeling highly excited, overactive or distracted)
hypo-mania (similar to mania, but less severe)
regular periods of depression, where treatment with other medicines has not worked
bipolar disorder, where your mood changes between feeling very high (mania) and very low (depression)
Lithium can also help reduce aggressive or self-harming behaviour.
Lithium is available on prescription.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea for different energy resources to mine for but do we really need to go in the battery direction for automobiles?
I hate battery operated cars.
They’re junk.
My crappy 2021 dodge ram gets 700 miles with a full tank of gas.
Hybrids make sense, all electric does not. Anyway, where are we going to get electricity to charge all electrice? The big data centers are already sucking up all the power.
2030 is optimistic. Environmental commie wackos will keep this tied up before dozens of District judges with unpronounceable names until at least 2080.
Thanks to “Stinky” Soros and Autopen Potatobrain.
Have the environmentalists been told?
diggg baby diggg!
The author Leslie could not have used a worse photo for what is going to happen in Arkansas if she tried. That’s a photo of the product scraped up from an open pit mining evaporation pond. The DLE tech mentioned is going to render that method of lithium recovery obsolete.
Smackover? You’re kidding! Get some help!
On another note I can see the environmental wackos already filing law suits to protect the spotted Clinton or some other endangered species.
“Lithium Valley is an area near the Salton Sea in Southern California with enormous deposits of lithium. The lithium is extracted from geothermal brine and used for electric cars and energy storage, boosting the economy of Imperial County.”
King Newsom the Terrible turned LV into a patronage scam.
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