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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on April 17, 2024 at 9:12

Pantera Minerals acquires more Lafayette County brine acreage

magnoliareporter.com  4/17/2024

Pantera Minerals Limited has added more than 1,500 leased acres to its lithium brine project in Lafayette County.

The Perth, Australia company said the expansion continues to bolster Pantera’s Lithium Brine Project, elevating its total acreage to 18,570 net acres, an increase of 9%.

Negotiations are currently under way for significant additional acres.

The Pantera Lithium Brine Project has established a conceptual Exploration Target4 ranging from 436,000 to 2,966,000 tonnes of contained Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (“LCE”) within the project’s 50,000-acre Exclusive Abstract Area, which houses the Superbird Project.

The estimate is based on lithium concentrations ranging between 225 mg/L and 450 mg/L with a median value of 338mg/L, showcasing the potential world-class scale of the project.

The Exploration Target’s potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a JORC compliant Mineral Resource, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a such a resource.

The Project now covers a land position of 18,570 net leased acres of lithium brine prospective ground in the Smackover Formation Arkansas, a known high grade lithium brine formation.

The Project has established a conceptual Exploration Target ranging from 436,000 to 2,966,000 tonnes of contained LCE within the project’s 50,000-acre Exclusive Abstract Area, which houses the Superbird Project.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on April 18, 2024 at 12:50

Oil and Gas: New lithium well in Lafayette County

magnoliareporter.com  4/18/2024

Lithium, oil and gas drilling activity was reported last week to the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.

Drilling Permit

Saltwerx LLC of Spring, TX is the operator and Nabors is the contractor for the Poppy No. 1 lithium brine

well, 729 feet FSL and 1,604 feet FEL in Section 11-18S-25W in a wildcat field in Lafayette County. Permit

depth is to 10,500 feet. Work began April 12.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on Wednesday

Standard Lithium Successfully Commissions First Commercial-Scale DLE Column in North America

Commercial-Scale DLE Column Now Commissioned and Operational at SLI’s Demonstration Plant in Arkansas Utilizing Koch Technology Solutions Li-Pro LSS Unit

April 24, 2024 06:00 ET | Source: Standard Lithium

Link to full article with images and captions:  https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/04/24/2868411/0/en/...

• EL DORADO, Ark., April 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Standard Lithium Ltd. (“Standard Lithium” or the “Company”) (TSXV:SLI) (NYSE American:SLI) (FRA:S5L), a leading near-commercial lithium development company, is pleased to announce that it has successfully commissioned and validated the performance of the largest continuously-operating Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) equipment in North America. The Company recently installed a commercial-scale DLE column at its Demonstration Plant near El Dorado, Arkansas. The column is a Li-Pro^TM Lithium Selective Sorption (“LSS”) unit, supplied by Koch Technology Solutions, LLC (“KTS”).

The column was installed and integrated into the Company’s existing Demonstration Plant, and is currently extracting lithium from Smackover Formation brine at an input flow rate of 90 gallons per minute (“gpm”; or 20.4 m³/hr). This is, to the best of the Company’s knowledge, both the largest DLE installation, and the only example of a commercial-scale DLE column in operation in North America. Since commissioning, the column has operated continuously and exceeded the design parameters for lithium recovery and rejection of impurities. Key technical highlights of the commercial-scale DLE column are provided below:

Key Findings:

• Lithium Recovery Efficiency: During a representative two-week period of performance in April 2024, the Li-Pro^TM LSS (DLE) process achieved an average lithium recovery (i.e. after loading and elution) of 97.3% from the 90 gpm incoming brine flow (the average incoming brine contained 208 mg/L lithium during the same period).
• Element Rejection Rate: During the same period, the DLE process rejected, on average, over 99% of the key contaminants sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium from the brine (i.e. less than 1% of those contaminants made it through the DLE step into the first lithium chloride solution); and over 95% of boron was rejected.
  • This high degree of contaminant rejection after DLE results in a substantially purified lithium chloride solution (the eluate). This eluate can then be further refined and concentrated using tested and proven steps to make it ready for conversion to either lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. These additional process steps have been successfully demonstrated for several years at the Company’s Demonstration Plant. In simple terms, when the DLE step rejects a higher percentage of impurities, the final lithium chloride solution, which is converted to battery-quality products, can be produced more efficiently.
• Operational Cycles: The most recent full-size commercial scale Li-Pro^TM LSS column has completed over 86 operational cycles, and the Li-Pro^TM LSS technology has completed over 8,500 operational cycles at the Demonstration Plant.
• Brine Processed: As of the end of March 2024, the Demonstration Plant had processed 17,039,825 gallons (64,495,738 litres) of Smackover brine, produced directly from the formation and reinjected continuously back into the same formation.
• Lithium Chloride: Since May 2020, the Demonstration Plant has produced many millions of gallons of ‘raw’ lithium chloride eluate from several generations of DLE technology development. Almost all of the ‘raw’ lithium chloride has been returned to the formation through LANXESS’ existing tail brine reinjection infrastructure. Additionally, over the last 4 years, approximately 330,000 gallons (1.25 million litres) of concentrated and/or purified lithium chloride solution have been produced for further process testing or for conversion into battery-quality lithium carbonate or hydroxide.

The performance of this commercial-scale DLE column is being used to validate the design assumptions for the Phase 1A Project and also underpins the process design work underway for the South West Arkansas (“SWA”) Project (see Press Release dated 24 January 2024).

Standard Lithium’s Director, President & COO, Dr. Andy Robinson commented: “Importantly, the column currently operating at SLI’s Demonstration Plant is identical to those that will be used in the commercial application, both in terms of the size, design and construction of the column, as well as the sorbent media being used inside. As such, this important collaboration between SLI and KTS at our Demonstration Plant is the first example in North America of DLE technology being deployed successfully using commercial-scale equipment. Validation of performance and successful operation of this column is a significant derisking step on our way to becoming the next major sustainable lithium producer in North America.”

About Standard Lithium Ltd.

Standard Lithium is a leading near-commercial lithium development company focused on the sustainable development of a portfolio of lithium-brine bearing properties in the United States. The Company prioritizes brine projects characterized by high-grade resources, robust infrastructure, skilled labor, and streamlined permitting. The Company aims to achieve sustainable, commercial-scale lithium production via the application of a scalable and fully-integrated Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) and purification process. The Company’s signature projects, the Phase 1A Project and the South West Arkansas Project, are located on the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas, a region with a longstanding and established brine processing industry. The Company has also identified a number of highly prospective lithium brine project areas in the Smackover Formation in East Texas and is conducting an extensive brine leasing program in the key project areas. In addition, the Company has an interest in certain mineral leases located in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California.

Standard Lithium trades on both the TSX Venture Exchange and the NYSE American under the symbol “SLI”; and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “S5L”. Please visit the Company’s website at www.standardlithium.com.

About Koch Technology Solutions

KTS is the technology licensing business of KES. KTS creates value for its customers across a growing portfolio of technologies including direct lithium extraction, the polyester value chain, and 1,4-Butananediol plus its derivates. KTS combines its exclusive technologies, expertise, and capabilities with those of other KES companies to provide overall solutions to optimize customer’s capital investments and existing manufacturing assets.

Qualified Person

Marek Dworzanowski, EUR ING, CEng, HonFSAIMM, FIMMM, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and a Consulting Metallurgical Engineer who is independent of the Company, has reviewed and approved the relevant scientific and technical information in this news release.

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Permalink Reply by Rock Man on Wednesday

Hope my math is correct.

90 gpm = 129,600 gallons per day (3086 bbls) of water (assuming 24/7 ops)

• 208 mg/liter lithium concentration or 0.000458562 pounds per gallon water

97.3% efficiency

• So 57.8 pounds lithium per day

Lithium price this week is around $6.92 per pound

• So about $400 of lithium per day being recovered (24/7 operation)

Seems low - what am I missing???

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on Wednesday

Thanks for the math, Rock Man.  I don't think you missed anything.  This is the reported performance of a column.  So how many columns would a full scale manufacturing facility have?  And what are the estimates of future lithium prices when the earliest DLE facilities will come on line in 2026?  The price of lithium is low now because the demand is low but the demand is forecast to rise significantly in the not too distant future.

I'm still unclear on what a stand alone DLE facility would look like and how many supply wells would serve each and how large in acres would be the brine production unit.  If a unit would be 700 to 1000 acres, that would be a lot of stand alone plants which doesn't seem ideal but larger footprint plants would be quite costly considering the expense for pipeline systems and the cost to operate and maintain them.

When lithium hit our radar, I created internet alerts for key words:  Smackover, Lithium and Brine. Since then my inbox is full of internet articles on global lithium projects including a number in North America, companies promoting their business plans and attempting to attract investors and differing types of lithium production methods.  At the rate that lithium is becoming a global commodity of interest, the demand will need to be great or the vast majority of these projects will fail.  DLE is certainly more environmentally friendly than surface mining and evaporation ponds but if transportation costs are not a limiting factor, the low cost producer wins.  Even if that low cost producer is not environmentally friendly and is located half way around the world.

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Permalink Reply by full name on Wednesday

I think your math is a little off. 

The conversion is a mas/volume divided by 119,800.  So 208 mg is 0.001736 lb/gal

At 97.3% efficiency it is .001689 lb/gal

Times 129,600 gal/day yields 218.89 lbs

At $6.92/lb total amount/day is $1,514.73

I tried it another way by converting gallons to liters price/lb to price/mg and came up with the same answer.

However I am a left handed engineer and have been known to get things backward.

Another question about the wells in Arkansas.  When a well is drilled how much of the surrounding area is included in the lease.  I know that in Louisiana horizontal wells are unitized to the entire section but in the old days vertical wells were a much smaller area (160 acres?).

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Permalink Reply by Rock Man on Wednesday

Guess I flunked that math quiz - thanks for correcting this.

Skip or others may know about the Arkansas acreage allocation number.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on Wednesday

Thanks, full name.  No matter how you calculate it, the future price of lithium will have to go up significantly.  That's a crystal ball projection so I won't go there.  I'm thinking that somewhere between a governmental section (640 acres) and two (1280 acres) would work with what we know so far.  The wells will be incredibly expensive due to well bore diameter and casing requirements.  Then owing to the same corrosion requirements, the supply pipelines will need to be fiberglass.  I have no way of knowing the challenges and requirements for that.  Those supply pipelines I suspect are one way flows to the DLE facility with another shorter pipeline system connection to the injection wells.  I'm thinking that the 200,000 acres that Exxon holds will be reduced to numerous stand alone production sites with a central facility for further purification and shipping of lithium carbonate or hydroxide to end users. 

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Permalink Reply by full name yesterday

Great.  Thanks for the information. Maybe a revenue stream for the grand-kids.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant yesterday

Oil, Gas and Lithium Report: Miller County gets its first lithium well

magnoliareporter.com 

A drilling permit for Miller County’s first lithium exploration well was issued last week by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.

Saltwerx LLC of Spring, TX, an ExxonMobil subsidiary, is the operator and Nabors is the contractor for the Alba No. 1, 987 feet FSL and 382 feet FWL in Section 3-17S-26W in a wildcat location in Miller County. Permit depth is to 10,200 feet in the Smackover Zone. No starting date was listed.

Saltwerx also amended the final location and depth of its Gabriella No. 1 wildcat well in Lafayette County that has already been drilled. The surface hole location is 1,066 feet FNL and 2,310 feet FWL, and the proposed bottom hole location is 2,149 feet FSL and 2,600 feet FEL in Section 12-18S-24W. The true vertical depth is to 11,000 feet, with a measured depth of 11,287.97 feet.

 

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