Final DLE Completed For The South West Arkansas Project

LEWISVILLE, AR - Smackover Lithium, a Joint Venture (JV) between Standard Lithium Ltd. and Equinor, has achieved one of the last technical milestones in the development of the South West Arkansas (SWA) project located in Lafayette and Columbia Counties, Arkansas. The JV, in partnership with Koch Technology Solutions (KTS), successfully completed the final Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) derisking step for the SWA project, a critical step toward commercialization. Over a three-month period, the JV and its partners operated an onsite DLE field-pilot plant, where it surpassed key performance criteria (more details provided below). Additionally, large-volume samples of the concentrated and purified DLE product have been sent to third-party vendors. These vendors will convert the DLE product into battery-quality lithium carbonate while also being assessed as potential equipment suppliers for the commercial project. The resulting samples will play a key role in the qualification process with prospective off-take partners.

Lithium recovery far exceeded the design criteria. During sustained operation, the DLE field-pilot plant recovered over 99% of the lithium from brine sourced from the SWA project’s International Paper Company (“IPC-1”) well, far exceeding the 95% recovery used in the current design (average lithium content of the incoming brine was 427 mg/L). Rejections for key contaminants were within acceptable tolerance of (i.e. just above or below) the design criteria. The field-pilot plant processed over 2,385 barrels (100,170 gallons) of brine from the IPC-1 well. Field-pilot plant completed over 497 DLE cycles.

These recent data from the field-pilot plant testing supplement the 28,367,185 gallons of brine processed, and the 11,206 cycles of DLE completed at Standard Lithium’s Demonstration Plant in El Dorado, Arkansas, operating since 2020 The heart of the plant is the same KTS Li-ProTM Lithium Selective Sorption (Li-Pro LSS) technology, as described in the Company’s recent news release (28 October 2024). The field-pilot plant has produced approximately 970 gallons (3,672 litres) of concentrated and purified lithium chloride solution (6% LiCl solution). The 970 gallons of 6% LiCl solution is currently being sent off-site to three separate potential carbonate equipment vendors. The three vendors are expected to produce, in total, approximately 27 kg of battery-quality lithium carbonate, anticipated in May 2025.

President and COO, Andy Robinson, said, “This field-pilot is the final step in derisking DLE technology for Smackover brines; we’re now ready to commercialize this technology. For 5 years, Standard Lithium has been operating a large-scale Demonstration Plant in Arkansas, and we’ve processed over 28 million gallons of real, live Smackover brine. This large Demonstration Plant has been invaluable in developing, streamlining and optimising the flowsheet. The field-pilot was the final step to demonstrate that we can reliably process brine from our SWA project, extract lithium in real-time, and convert to a battery-quality lithium carbonate product. Smackover Lithium has now completed the necessary testing of the flowsheet, and can complete the FEED work and feasibility study.”