Copyright Arkansas Online
Your browser does not support the audio element. As Arkansas wades into the lithium industry, companies are scooping up mineral rights and the state is adjusting to meet the new workforce needs. Adapting to the needs of the industry will have long-term ripples in the state, to the tune of billions of dollars in economic benefits as the industry grows and the state builds out its role in the industry, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., told a group gathered Tuesday for the state's second summit on the lithium industry. Westerman was one of several keynote speakers at the Lithium Innovation Summit, which featured companies invested in the industry discussing the future of lithium, extraction methods and the global growth of the market for the element used in batteries and electric cars. The summit, sponsored by industries investing in lithium, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Standard Lithium, Equinor, Albemarle, and the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, featured panels on the future of the lithium industry, and talks on building out Arkansas' role in the future of the global market. "We're training the workforce you need," Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a gathering of more than 250 people at the summit, held at the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock. As Arkansas ramps up lithium extraction and production, it is playing catch up with China, which has among the largest lithium reserves in the world, as well as being a leader in processing and refining lithium. Lithium plays a role in batteries for electric vehicles, military systems and energy storage, making it key to the country's future and energy independence, said Simon Moores, CEO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which provides price assessments and intelligence about the industry. "China has taken the bull by the horns with this," Moores told the conference. "Nothing is going to come in and shift lithium off its axis." With the state positioned to produce at least one million tons of lithium -- which can be processed into 5 million tons of lithium carbonate used in batteries -- the state can benefit to the tune of $50 billion, Westerman said. And lithium production -- making the extracted chemical usable in batteries and other products -- is key to the state's future, Sanders said. "We don't just want to do lithium extraction," Sanders said. "We want to produce and refine here in Arkansas, right where you sit." With the state's history of oil and gas production and working with the energy industry, "Arkansas is ahead of the game" when it comes to lithium, Westerman said. "Energy is going to be the critical component in our futures," said Westerman, who represents much of southern Arkansas, where the lithium industry is based in the state. The state has taken several steps to promote the lithium industry, including adopting a sales-and-use tax exemption for a qualified firm for purchases and sales by a qualified facility, which would be a for-profit business engaged in developing lithium, cathode, anode, lithium battery and grid storage facility equipment Arkansas regulators in May approved a 2.5% royalty for lithium extracted from brine on the property of mineral rights owners in the southern part of the state in what's known as the Smackover Formation. That decision by the Oil and Gas Commission ended a multi-year fight between Standard Lithium and landowners in Columbia and Lafayette counties in an area stretching from east Texas through Arkansas and into the western tip of Florida's Panhandle. "We want to focus on ... leaning into our natural advantage," the state's Secretary of Commerce, Hugh McDonald, told the gathering. The administrations of former President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump considered lithium a "critical mineral" and both backed Standard Lithium's work in Arkansas. Biden's team gave the company a $225 million Department of Energy development grant. The Trump administration gave the work project priority development in one of his initial executive orders. Standard Lithium, working with Equinor, a Norwegian energy company, and Saltwerx, an affiliate of ExxonMobil, have both secured mineral rights and royalty agreements with landowners. Chevron has acquired about 125,000 acres in the Smackover Formation.
