Arkansas Business: Smackover Lithium Plant Moves Toward Go-Time

Jan 30

Standard Lithium Ltd. of Vancouver and its partner Equinor of Stavanger, Norway, are moving toward a final investment decision on a $1.5 billion lithium extraction plant in Lafayette County, positioning Arkansas to host one of the first large-scale direct lithium extraction (DLE) facilities in the U.S., according to a cover story in Jan. 26 edition of Arkansas Business newspaper.

In the cover story, reporter Kyle Massey recounts the major hurdles the project — called Smackover Lithium — has cleared.
Those include regulatory approval, a state-set 2.5% royalty rate, a $225 million U.S. Department of Energy grant and growing interest from export credit agencies that could finance more than $1 billion in project debt.
Together, those pieces move the project from theory to near-term construction.

The story draws on this webcast presentation (registration required) by Standard Lithium CEO David Park at the Citi 2025 Basic Materials Conference in December:

“We’ve de-risked it as far as we possibly can, and it’s time to build it,” Park said, pointing to five years of pilot operations, a completed feasibility study and investor interest.

The story also includes comments from Massey’s interview with finance professor Tomas Jandik of the University of Arkansas, who is encouraged by the investor interest:

“It is clearly beneficial that there is interest from several lenders willing to lend a significant portion of project costs, for many, many reasons,” Jandik told Massey. “Debt financing is typically cheaper than equity financing.”

What’s next:

Smackover Lithium is finalizing offtake agreements and assembling its debt-financing package. If those fall into place, construction could begin in the middle of this calendar year, putting Arkansas on the map as a domestic lithium producer.