Galvanic Energy is looking for a partner to help it extract lithium from the 120,000 acres it has leased in Columbia and Lafayette counties.
Brent Wilson, president and CEO of the Moore, OK, company, said in a post on the company’s website that its Southwest Arkansas mineral leases contain an estimate 4 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent within a “hot spot” in the Smackover Formation.
“With test wells yielding 290-520 mg/L (milligrams per liter) lithium within our top tier area and the entire prospect averaging 325 mg/L lithium, this prospect is one of the most concentrated lithium brine reservoirs in North America,” Wilson wrote.
The company’s leases are generally south of leases acquired by Tetra Technologies in Lafayette County, and west of Albemarle Corporation’s leases in Columbia County.
Albemarle has announced plans to use direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology to take the electric battery storage element from brine it produces in the Magnolia area. Albemarle and its predecessors have manufactured bromine from Columbia County brine for a half-century.
Tetra will declare by year’s end whether it will build a brine field and bromine plant, possibly in Lafayette County. This will be followed by a decision next year whether to piggyback lithium production onto any bromine facility it might build.
the Tetra leases, and west of Albemarle leases.
Galvanic’s Wilson said in his post that the company learned that International Battery Metals had patented a modular DLE plant that was ready for a large-volume test.
“More than 50,000 gallons of a modest 300 mg/L lithium Smackover brine was secured for processing. We discovered, according to a third-party engineering report, as much as 89 percent of the lithium was recovered, showing a high recovery potential for DLE technologies, such as IBAT’s.
“Besides fresh water, no other chemicals were required in the IBAT process, whereas other DLE operators add acids, bases or both to adjust the pH of the brine through their DLE processes. Of the fresh water used, 94 percent of it was recaptured and recycles, thus minimizing its consumption. Additionally, the performance of the DLE system is optimized by the natural thermal energy associated with the 200-degree brine produced from the Smackover Formation, which improves the kinetics of the absorption process,” Wilson wrote.
Galvanic Energy, Wilson said, is looking for a DLE partner that shares its goals to produce lithium in a manner that leaves a minimal environmental footprint, protects and conserves the water supply, and maintains air quality.
