Inaugural Arkansas Lithium Innovation Summit underway in Little Rock
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A new industry in Arkansas is taking the center stage Thursday and Friday in downtown Little Rock.
People eager to learn about lithium and how the natural resource’s extraction could change the Natural State are in Robinson Center for the inaugural Arkansas Lithium Innovation Summit.
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The summit is being presented by many of the businesses laying the groundwork to get the metal out of the ground, as well as the state and local partners helping it happen every step of the way.
The summit began with state leaders welcoming people from central Arkansas and beyond. Then keynote speakers like Andrew Miller, chief operations officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, explained lithium on a global scale.
“The lithium prospects in the U.S. are some of the best in the world, so to see the policy, the regulatory sort of momentum, alongside of what’s happening at an industry level and a technology level here in Arkansas is massively exciting,” Miller said.
People like Jeff Standbridge of Conway are attending to learn what the metal is and its potential impact when the state starts extracting it.
“Someone asked me earlier what I hope to get out of it,” Standbridge said. “First of all, I said I want to learn a little more about what it is.”
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Unlike how other places mine holes in the ground or evaporate groundwater for lithium, Arkansas will be using a similar process to how companies in the state extract bromine.
Groundwater will be pumped to the surface, where the lithium salts will be chemically separated. Then the remaining water will be put back where it was found.
“It’s a new and novel way of producing lithium,” Miller said. “Not many companies in the world do it today, but it is definitely going to play a big part in the future expansion of the lithium industry.”
When ExxonMobil announced its south Arkansas lithium mining venture in 2023, the company stated that Arkansas lithium is expected to go to market in 2027. The metal would put Arkansas on the map as the United States’ second lithium-producing state.
Internationally, the high-demand metal is used in medicine and batteries. Rechargeable batteries in personal electronics and electric vehicles use most of the lithium currently being produced.
Stakeholders from suppliers of materials, infrastructure, or money are all showing they want in on south Arkansas’ underground efforts.
“People have been banging the drum about what’s the potential here in Arkansas for a huge amount of time, but I think what’s really encouraging about this conference is that it really shows the fact that we’re beyond the initial hype about something and we’re really in the significant development phase,” Miller said.
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Companies working to extract lithium in Arkansas said early exploration suggested the state could potentially produce up to 15% of the world’s lithium. That has those on the sidelines like Standbridge excited about how he can help what entrepreneurs will do in South Arkansas.
“The opportunity to give a boom if you will to that part of our state is really encouraging,” Standbridge said. “Any concern I may have had was laid to rest by just the early part of the conference.”
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