Standard Lithium signs brine testing deal with Lanxess

Standard Lithium announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with global specialty chemicals company Lanxess Corporation and its US affiliate Great Lakes Chemical Corporation on Wednesday.

The firm said the MoU had the purpose of testing and proving the commercial viability of extraction of lithium from brine produced as part of Lanxess's bromine extraction business at its three southern Arkansas facilities.

It said Lanxess’s land operations in southern Arkansas encompassed more than 150,000 acres, 10,000 brine leases and surface agreements and 250 miles of pipelines.

It extracts the brine from wells located throughout the area, with the brine is transported to the three Arkansas plants through a network of pipelines.

The three bromine extraction plants currently employed around 500 people, processing and reinjecting several hundred thousand barrels of brine per day.

Standard Lithium had developed proprietary processes related to the extraction of high purity lithium directly from brines, including tail brine.

Additionally, the company said it secured the rights to conduct exploration, production and lithium extraction activities on around 30,000 acres of brine leases located elsewhere in the Smackover Formation in southwest Arkansas.

The MoU set out the basis on which the parties agreed to cooperate in a phased process towards developing commercial opportunities related to the production, marketing and sale of battery-grade lithium products extracted from tail brine and brine produced from the Smackover Formation.

It formed the basis of what would become a definitive agreement, Standard Lithium said, and was binding until the execution of a more comprehensive agreement that the parties could execute on the completion of further development phases.

Standard Lithium said it paid an initial $3m reservation fee to Lanxess to secure access to the tail brine, with additional fees and obligations in the future subject to certain conditions.

“We are delighted to be entering into a cooperation with Lanxess, a highly-respected world leader in the specialty chemical sector,” said Standard Lithium CEO Robert Mintak.

“Given the scale of the existing infrastructure and potential resource, the mitigation of project execution risks and acceleration of the Smackover project development timeline, this MoU represents an important step for Standard Lithium.”

Andy Robinson, president and chief operating officer of the company, added that the project provided the “perfect opportunity” to test modern brine processing technology on an existing lithium brine stream.

“We hope to move as quickly as possible towards deploying our pilot plant,” Dr Robinson added.