Smackover Lithium Puts $5 Billion Value on First East Texas Project
Smackover Lithium, the partnership between Standard Lithium Ltd. of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Equinor of Stavanger, Norway, released a preliminary economic assessment that values its first East Texas lithium project, called Franklin, at $5 billion after tax.
The Details
Franklin sits in Hopkins, Franklin and Titus counties, south of Mount Vernon, Texas, near Interstate 30. The preliminary study projects:
Up to 70,000 tons a year of battery-quality lithium carbonate, using the same lithium extraction technology as the partnership’s South West Arkansas Project in Lafayette County, Arkansas.
A 24% after-tax internal rate of return and 3.1-year payback, assuming a lithium carbonate price of $22,400 per ton.
$3.5 billion in initial construction costs.
An upgraded resource estimate, with some of the highest lithium concentrations reported in North America.
Franklin is separate from the partnership’s more advanced SWA Project, which is nearing a final investment decision this year. The two projects are key to Smackover Lithium’s goal of producing more than 100,000 tons of lithium chemicals a year.
Franklin is “arguably one of the largest and highest-quality lithium brine resources in North America,” Andy Robinson, Standard Lithium’s president and chief operating officer, said in a news release.
Allison Kennedy Thurmond, Equinor’s vice president for U.S. lithium, said that “advancing the [preliminary economic estimate] for the Franklin Project is an important step in unlocking the broader lithium potential for our partnership across the region.”
SWA Project vs. Franklin
Franklin is the partnership’s second major Smackover Formation project, and it is well behind the SWA Project in both study depth and certainty:
Study stage: SWA has a completed definitive feasibility study, cleared federal environmental review, awarded construction contracts and is advancing toward a final investment decision and construction start this year. Franklin is at the preliminary economic assessment stage, an early estimate meant to define scope ahead of a pre-feasibility study.
Resource: SWA holds 1.18 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), classified as measured and indicated, at 442 to 481 mg/L. Franklin’s resource is 1.77 million tons LCE indicated at 562 mg/L, plus a larger 2.13 million tons LCE inferred at 572 mg/L.
Phase 1 capacity: SWA is engineered for about 22,500 tons a year. Franklin is designed for up to 70,000 tons a year.
Initial capex: SWA’s initial capital cost is estimated at $1.45 billion, or about $64,000 per ton of capacity. Franklin’s is $3.5 billion, or about $50,000 per ton of capacity.
What’s Next
The partnership plans to conduct a more detailed feasibility study of Franklin, targeted for completion in 2027, with potential production starting in the early 2030s.
More: Maps, charts and more details about the Franklin Project at Smackover Lithium’s newsroom.
