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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 19, 2023 at 7:48

US DOE announces winners of first-ever Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize

Winners announced for the American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize (source: US DOE)

 

Carlo Cariaga 19 Sep 2023

 

The team from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been declared the winner of the US DOE's first-ever Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the winning teams of the first-ever American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize. The three teams will split a total of USD 2 million for prototyped innovations to directly extract lithium from geothermal brine. The winning teams are as follows:

• Winning Team (USD 1 million) – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign – Team SelectPureLi, A Redox Membrane for Lithium Hydroxide Extraction
• Runner-Up (USD 500,000) – University of Virginia – Team TELEPORT, Targeted Extraction of Lithium with Electroactive Particles for Recovery Technology (TELEPORT)
• Runner-Up (USD 500,000) – George Washington University – Team Ellexco, Chemical-Free Extraction of Lithium from Brines

The Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize was launched in 2021 to help find solutions that de-risk and increase market viability for direct lithium extraction (DLE) from geothermal brines. After a few rounds of selection, the five finalists for the competition were announced in mid-2022. Over the course of two years, the competitors advanced through three competition phases—moving from concepts developed in phase 1, through a design stage in phase 2, and finally to fabricating and testing prototypes in the third and final phase.

Work under the prize helps support access to cost-effective, domestic sources of this critical mineral for batteries for stationary storage and electric vehicles—crucial to meet the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals of 50% electric vehicle adoption by 2030 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. Advancing geothermal lithium extraction will also help ensure American leadership in the clean energy future and create U.S. jobs and a strong domestic supply chain.

“Lithium is an important part of the nation’s energy future and our ability to decarbonize the economy,” said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “We are excited about the innovations these three winners and all of the prize competitors achieved and look forward to what they do next to advance this technology and help us realize a secure domestic source of this critical mineral.” 

Funded by the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize is part of DOE’s portfolio researching lithium extraction from geothermal brines. The portfolio also includes a joint $11 million funding program by GTO and the Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Technologies Office to innovate technologies for extracting and converting battery-grade lithium from geothermal brines.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 25, 2023 at 13:00

Hints for Landowners On Lithium Royalties | Arkansas Business News

By Eleanor Patel Sep 25, 2023 Arkansas Business News

Some of the people paying closest attention to the birth of a lithium industry in south Arkansas are the landowners with mineral rights leased out for their underground brine.

When will they get royalties for the lithium extracted from the saltwater pumped up on their acres, and how much money will those royalties bring?

The quick answer is we won’t know for a while, but we have some hints.

Standard Lithium Ltd. and Lanxess AG are moving ahead with plans to build a $365 million commercial lithium production facility near El Dorado, and they have proposed preliminary lithium royalty rates for the landowners. The companies expect the plant to produce 5,400 tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate a year.

Standard, of Vancouver, British Columbia, has been extracting lithium at pilot facilities at the Lanxess South brine plant in Union County for three years, but no lithium from the testing phase has been sold, according to a July 23 letter from company lawyers to the Arkansas Oil & Gas Commission. The commission will set a lithium royalty eventually, and is holding a hearing tomorrow to consider the companies’ request for a continuance on the royalty issue until December.

Standard and Lanxess expect to start construction on the Union County project next year, but commercial production won’t begin until 2026.

Lanxess, of Cologne, Germany, has been producing bromine from Smackover Formation brines for years, and paying landowners a royalty of $56 per acre per year. But lithium royalties will be based on tonnage of lithium carbonate, and the El Dorado facility looks to produce some 5,400 tons a year for at least 25 years. Its feasibility study reflects a long-term price estimate of $30,000 per ton.

Standard is planning a bigger $1.27 billion commercial lithium plant west of Magnolia and announced earlier this month that it bought a 118-acre parcel in Lafayette County as a possible site for it. The plant could create as much as 30,000 tons of lithium chemicals per year. But for now, let’s leave that aside.

O&GC Director Lawrence E. Bengal told Arkansas Business that although the letter from lawyer Robert M. Honea of the Hardin Jesson & Terry firm of Fort Smith includes proposed royalties, “that proposed royalty amount has not yet been approved or established” by his commission. “As you know, there are now other companies evaluating the area and have also announced proposed development plans,” Bengal said.

Those ventures, by Exxon Mobil Corp., Tetra Technologies Inc., Albemarle Corp. and others, could affect the royalty calculation.

“The continuation of the Standard Lithium royalty determination hearing does not reflect on the feasibility of the project but more on the development of necessary information to present to the commission,” Bengal said.

Honea’s letter said that Lanxess and Arkansas Lithium Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard, propose a royalty to be based on the price the companies receive from third-party purchasers.

For lithium carbonate sold at $30,000 per metric ton, the royalty would be $400 per ton. Prices up to $40,000 would bring $450 a ton, on up to a $900 royalty for prices above $60,000 per ton.

“The applicants request that the royalty established by the AOGC to be payable quarterly,” Honea’s letter says, based on the quarterly average gross sales price of lithium carbonate.

The companies are also asking for the Oil & Gas Commission to make any order apply to the Union County project “in recognition of the fact that the economics underlying” a fair royalty rate “will vary from one brine producing unit to another.”

In other words, royalties could most likely differ for landowners involved in the Union County and Lafayette County projects. 

 

Permalink Reply by Lisa on September 28, 2023 at 11:38

Does this article offer hope to those of us in Northeast Texas that Standard Lithium (or others) will eventually offer royalties tied to the value of product taken? I occasionally hear from their representative asking if we will stop being a “hold out” and sign on with what they are currently offering. My land is in Franklin County.

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 28, 2023 at 12:13

Lisa, Arkansas has already established regulations that guide the payment of royalty on brine.  Texas has not but will likely do so in the near future.  At this point the data is insufficient to know where in east Texas the Smackover brine may be economic but I'm glad that Standard Lithium seems to think so.  I wouldn't let their representative rush you.  When plays like this unfold the only way that wide spread leasing works is to get those rights dirt cheap.

Permalink Reply by Joe B. Lovelace on September 28, 2023 at 12:18

Skip, as I read the progress of regulation of brine extraction (SB 1186) likely the terms of royalty will remain a negotiation of  between the Lessor and the Lessee as in Texas Oil & Gas Leases.  I agree with the other comments made in response to Lisa. 

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 28, 2023 at 12:34

I hope that is the final regulation, Joe.  The Arkansas regulations seem arbitrary and less than equitable for the land owners.

Permalink Reply by Jamie Rhymes on September 28, 2023 at 12:39

Joe, where can I find info on those proposed regulations?

Permalink Reply by Joe B. Lovelace on September 28, 2023 at 20:47

Jamie, the Texas Railroad Commission, on their website  https://www.rrc.texas.gov/general-counsel/rules/current-rules/  you can join the RRC Rules Email Service to receive email notifications of the Railroad Commission of Texas' rule-making actions.  When the new rule is published for comment it should state it is codifying the authority granted by SB 1186.  I am not aware of draft rules having, been published yet

Permalink Reply by Lisa on September 28, 2023 at 11:41

I also sometimes wonder if we are too far west of the Magnolia area to matter to the project.

Permalink Reply by Rock Man on September 28, 2023 at 12:20

There is Smackover reservoir and wet section that far west - but have never seen any chemical analysis results. I am sure that some people are chasing the lithium play in that direction and scrambling to find data to support the concept.

Permalink Reply by Joe B. Lovelace on October 9, 2023 at 23:26

Standard Lithium Ltd. today announced it has drilled and sampled, to the best of its knowledge, a new highest confirmed lithium grade brine in North America, with a grade of 663 mg/L lithium. The results reflect lithium sample analyses from a newly drilled well from the Company’s significant expansion work in the East Texas Smackover region.

Attachments:

• 10102023 Standard Lithium?s East Texas Drilling Program Delivers New Highest Confirmed Grade Lithium Brine in North America.pdf, 674 KB

Permalink Reply by Rock Man on October 9, 2023 at 23:29

Great new info for this play!

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