Canadian firm seeks Arkansas pilot plant to extract lithium

EL DORADO, Ark.—Standard Lithium Ltd., the Canadian company with big plans to tap south Arkansas' underground brine stream to extract battery-grade lithium, is ramping up testing at a pilot crystallization plant in British Columbia and gaining provisional approval for a pilot extraction operation west of El Dorado that could be in place as early as late February.

Standard, of Vancouver, has completed a plant to test its proprietary selective crystallization process, designed to refine battery-quality lithium from a solution extracted from brine, in partnership with Saltworks Technologies Inc. of Richmond, British Columbia.

The technology in the pilot plant, if successful, could end up refining extracts pulled from South Arkansas brine, which was found to hold strong concentration of lithium carbonate in tests of saltwater from two previously drilled oil and gas wells in south Arkansas.

Lithium, a valuable element used in everything from cellphone and laptop batteries to the systems of electric automobiles, could be a boon for Arkansas' economy if the publicly traded Canadian company, which has partnered in brine leases near El Dorado and Magnolia, can prove its ability to refine battery-grade lithium at an industrial scale.

Read more: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2018/nov/12/canadian-firm-seeks-arkansas-pilot-plant-extract-lithium/752049/