Eureka! Arkansas is sitting on millions of tons of lithium, geologists say

Government scientists have discovered millions of tons of lithium reserves in southwestern Arkansas, a jackpot that could meet the demand for batteries that drive the surging electric vehicle market.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it used water testing and machine learning to find between 5 million and 19 million tons of lithium in the Smackover Formation.

If commercially recoverable, the lithium lode could meet the projected 2020 demand for lithium in car batteries nine times over, the USGS said.

“Lithium is a critical mineral for the energy transition, and the potential for increased U.S. production to replace imports has implications for employment, manufacturing and supply-chain resilience,” USGS Director David Applegate said.

The study produced an estimate of what is in the formation and not what will be recoverable, the geologists said.

Still, the Arkansas supply would be a major boon for industries that increasingly rely on lithium. The mineral is critical to battery production, and demand has surged alongside the rise of smartphones and laptops, plus the shift toward EVs instead of gas-powered vehicles.

President Biden proposed stringent tailpipe emission rules that would force automakers to sell primarily EVs by 2030.

His tax-and-climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act included $369 billion in green energy tax credits, including money to manufacture domestic EV batteries and credits up to $7,500 per vehicle for EV buyers.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk supports former President Donald Trump, but he’s a leader in EV production as CEO of Tesla. He’s called lithium the “new oil” and says refinement of the element is a major business opportunity.

Australia, China and Chile are major producers of lithium. The U.S. relies on imports for 25% of its lithium, making the Arkansas discovery significant.

“We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace U.S. imports of lithium and more,” said Katherine Knierim, a hydrologist and principal researcher on the study.

The USGS and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Office of the State Geologist used advanced techniques to tap into brines in the Smackover Formation. The formation is the result of an ancient sea that left permeable limestone beneath Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Exxon Mobil Corporation said in 2023 that it would become a leading producer of lithium and had acquired the rights to 120,000 gross acres of the Smackover Formation.

The company said it is targeting its first lithium production for 2027. By 2030, it hopes to supply enough lithium to support the manufacturing of more than 1 million EVs per year.

“South Arkansas is our state’s all-around energy capital, producing oil, natural gas, and now thanks to investments like ExxonMobil’s and their combination of skills and scale, lithium,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, said in November 2023. “My administration supports an all-of-the-above energy strategy that guarantees good, high-paying jobs for Arkansans – and we’ll continue to cut taxes and slash red tape to make that happen.”