IBAT CEO: Lithium Extraction in Smackover ‘Almost Child's Play’
IBAT CEO: Lithium Extraction in Smackover ‘Almost Child's Play’
Iris Jancik, the CEO of International Battery Metals, said the company is working with large E&Ps and majors, including Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum, to explore lithium extraction projects.
Jordan Blum, editorial director, Hart Energy: We are here at CERAWeek 2025. I'm joined by Iris Jancik, the CEO of International Battery Metals. Thank you so much for joining us. So obviously here we're talking a lot about oil and gas, but also energy transition, critical minerals, and in this case we're talking about building up the domestic lithium supply chain. Can you tell me about what you all are working on and just the technology with direct lithium extraction?
Iris Jancik: Of course. And thank you so much for having us here. So IBAT, International Battery Metals, is a DLE technology company. So direct lithium extraction has been getting more and more attention as the new way to extract lithium, the new way to add untapped lithium to the supply chain locally, domestically in the U.S. And so this is something that has been on people's minds and people are trying to develop this technology for quite a long time. Our founder, the company, has been founded in 2018. Our founder is Dr. John Burba, who is considered the father of lithium. He is one of the two scientists who's behind the original FMC plant, recently Rio Tinto, which is the only DLE operational plant in the world. And so that the work that he did there was the base for our technology today, and it is fully patented. It is based on an absorbent and a process.
And so this whole process of direct lithium extraction goes really from the wellhead to producing lithium chloride and could be processed further of course to lithium carbonate to supply battery manufacturers. So about three years ago, we built our first plant. It was actually meant for a project in South America that did not materialize, and so it was put in storage until last January. During that time, however, when it was in storage, we fired up part of the plant and used it as a sampling facility and we sampled over 80 brines, mostly Smackover, but also from South America, to provide validation both for the technology and for resources. One of the famous or more talked about resource was the galvanic, where Exxon then acquired the land based on the sampling that was done in our facility. And as I mentioned last January, we were contacted by US Magnesium to come and support them on their site as they extract lithium from their synthetic brine.
So it's actually their byproduct of the magnesium process. We worked there for several months. It was a very challenging work environment, again, due to the fact that it was a unique brine. Nothing like what we would expect in the Smackover or in other natural resources, but it was a very successful project. We produced over 25 tons of lithium carbonate. We ran over 8,000 cycles. So just for reference, when other companies represent some of their work and their successes and talk about successful pilots, usually they're talking about 3-inch beaker in labs, and they are successful. But the challenge comes, and this is for every technology, probably in every industry, is when you try to scale up. And so for us being able to present in our case study that we've ran over 8,000 cycles on 3-foot diameter columns is very, very meaningful. Obviously there is no scaling up dilemma anymore when it comes to the technology. And in order to increase capacity, you simply add on columns.
And so this whole process of direct lithium extraction goes really from the wellhead to producing lithium chloride and could be processed further of course to lithium carbonate to supply battery manufacturers. So about three years ago, we built our first plant. It was actually meant for a project in South America that did not materialize, and so it was put in storage until last January. During that time, however, when it was in storage, we fired up part of the plant and used it as a sampling facility and we sampled over 80 brines, mostly Smackover, but also from South America, to provide validation both for the technology and for resources. One of the famous or more talked about resource was the galvanic, where Exxon then acquired the land based on the sampling that was done in our facility. And as I mentioned last January, we were contacted by US Magnesium to come and support them on their site as they extract lithium from their synthetic brine.
So it's actually their byproduct of the magnesium process. We worked there for several months. It was a very challenging work environment, again, due to the fact that it was a unique brine. Nothing like what we would expect in the Smackover or in other natural resources, but it was a very successful project. We produced over 25 tons of lithium carbonate. We ran over 8,000 cycles. So just for reference, when other companies represent some of their work and their successes and talk about successful pilots, usually they're talking about 3-inch beaker in labs, and they are successful. But the challenge comes, and this is for every technology, probably in every industry, is when you try to scale up. And so for us being able to present in our case study that we've ran over 8,000 cycles on 3-foot diameter columns is very, very meaningful. Obviously there is no scaling up dilemma anymore when it comes to the technology. And in order to increase capacity, you simply add on columns.
JB: Yeah, so you're touching on it. Can you kind of elaborate on taking that modular facility approach and being more economically competitive that way?
IJ: Yes, very well. So the plant is fully modular, meaning it's all skid based, that's one thing. So very easy to transport and very easy to set up within the limitations of whatever the resource is in terms of space. The fact that it's modular allows for potential customers to de-risk their projects because they can start at lower capacities, demonstrate the technology, validate the resource as well, and then grow with adding on modules. Since each column is independent of the other, then basically to increase capacity, you just increase the number of columns so the technology can be proven and demonstrated with one single column, and the production capacity can be determined by the number of columns the client wants to put on the land.
JB: Great. So you have the first plant in Utah, but you're obviously looking to do more in the Smackover Formation. Can you discuss kind of what you all have in mind in this area that oil and gas companies are investing in too, such as Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum?
IJ: Right. So yes, all the big players are involved and they have long-term strategies and long-term goals to achieve. And that's very important, especially since lithium prices aren't where we all want them to be. So it's these very pivotal players that are going to continue to develop the technology and then to develop the resources so that when the prices are where they need to be and the economics are all mature, then they'll be ready at the starting line. So we are looking for such players that again, have the resources both on the land and on the cash side and on the engineering capabilities to demonstrate our technology on their land at scale, commercial scale level with this specific plan that we have since taken out of the Utah site. And in addition, we are also looking at developing greenfield projects with new resources on the Smackover. We feel that after our challenging operations, again successful but challenging operations at US Mag, the Smackover will be almost child's play in terms of its consistency and knowing what hasn't changed in millions of years isn't going to change throughout the production. So that's going to be very good.
JB: Very good. So the Smackover might be the biggest growth area for you, but you can also extract lithium from produced water in some cases, produced water being a big issue in the Permian Basin out in West Texas. And I wanted to get your thoughts on what opportunities might be out there as well.
IJ: So one of the things that we've learned from our both testing and from the last plant operation is that our media is not just brine agnostic, but it's a concentration of lithium agnostic, meaning whatever lithium concentration is in the brine, get it out regardless if it's 50 ppm or 500 ppm, which means that even on produced water or resources that have lower concentrations of lithium, the technology is very efficient. Of course on the produced water, if lower concentrations are expected, then obviously there's a much larger cost of pumping the water and a lot more water that you actually need to move. And so produced water, which is all those parts of the operations are already sunken costs, can actually, you come from a negative revenue stream, so to speak, or a cost model where produce water costs minus a hundred dollars to now adding in a new revenue and making that minus 100 into a plus 50, for instance. So it's actually taking a cost center or a cost module for the operations and turning it over into a revenue stream.
JB: Might as well do something with it.
IJ: Absolutely. You're already pumping it, you're already spending the money to pre-treat it then. So, absolutely, why not add on the DLE? And that's how these companies are seeing it kind of as an add-on to their already existing facilities and being able to deploy such a plant in such a short time. For us then it's absolute an advantage that we can come and cooperate with these companies pretty quickly.
JB: So it's obviously early days there, but a lot of optimism.
IJ: A lot of optimism. These companies are obviously big and there's a long decision-making processes, but we're there and we're having these discussions and they have to do their proper due diligence and that is absolutely expected and how they should be working. And so we support them along the way of doing the testing, the sampling and really teaching them everything there's to know about the technology so that they can make the right decision and hopefully bring us on as partners.
JB: Very good. Well thank you so much for joining us here at CERAWeek. Really appreciate it. To read and watch more, please visit online at HartEnergy.com
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