Standard Lithium Ltd. (“
Standard
Lithium” or the “
Company”) (TSXV: SLI)
(NYSE American: SLI) (FRA: S5L), a leading near-commercial lithium
company, is pleased to announce that, as part of its significant
resource expansion work in the East Texas Smackover region, it has
sampled, to the best of its knowledge, the highest confirmed
lithium grade brine in North America, with a grade of 634 mg/L
lithium. In Standard Lithium’s experience, the grade of lithium in
brine used for Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) has a meaningful
impact on both capital expenditures and operating costs in
connection with the extraction process, with a higher grade
typically resulting in lower overall costs.
Dr. Andy Robinson, President and COO of Standard
Lithium commented, “We’re excited to discover this outstanding
resource and to add it to our expanding portfolio of select
projects in the Smackover Formation. We have built a large and
technically diverse team of Smackover specialists who have been
working for almost three years to understand the most prospective
areas to secure the highest quality brine resources in East Texas.
The technical group has been supplemented by a strong team of
mineral and land professionals who have been securing the extensive
brine rights in these key project areas. Based on this work, the
Company acquired the rights to one existing well and to drill a new
deep well. We are delighted that sampling from the new well has led
us to find lithium brine with, to the best of the Company’s
knowledge, the highest grade in North America.”
“These very high-quality lithium brine
resources, located in the heart of the Gulf Coast region, are close
to, and highly complementary to, Standard Lithium’s existing
lithium projects and have the potential to play a key role in
future lithium production as part of the Company’s development and
commercialization program. We look forward to working with the
local communities and building our presence in East Texas, and we
will be releasing further technical reports defining the project
areas in the near future.”
Analysis and Testing
Details
Over the past three years, the Standard Lithium
team has been developing a thorough understanding of the Smackover
Formation in Texas, via analysis of existing petro-physical logs,
2D seismic data and existing core sample analysis (retained from
previous drilling activity). This understanding has been
supplemented by sampling and analytical testing of produced water
from existing oil and gas production wells from the Smackover
Formation in the East Texas area. As a result of this data
gathering and interpretive work, the Company identified a select
number of highly prospective lithium brine project areas in the
Smackover Formation in East Texas and began an extensive brine
leasing program in the key project areas. The greatest level of
effort to date, and the Company’s principal brine leasing focus,
has been in the region close to the Arkansas and Louisiana state
lines. As the Company has been securing brine rights in the key
project areas over the last 18 months, it also secured access to a
pre-existing oil and gas production well and drilled a new
exploration borehole (see news release dated October 27th,
2022).
The pre-existing well was re-entered using a
workover rig and the existing production casing was perforated at
various depth intervals to gather new brine samples from different
levels in the Smackover Formation. The new exploration borehole was
advanced and cased using a drill rig, and subsequently sampled
using a workover rig. Figures 1 and 2 below show images of the two
recent project sites.
Figure 1: Drill rig at the new
borehole/well location in East Texas. The drill rig has since
demobilized from this location and has been replaced by a workover
rig to complete perforations, final testwork and
sampling.
Figure 2: Workover rig at the
pre-existing production well in East Texas. This rig was used to
re-perforate the existing production casing to allow brine sampling
from various zones in the Smackover Formation.
Brine samples taken from these two wells, in
addition to samples taken from other closely adjacent wells
completed in the Smackover Formation in East Texas, are shown in
Table 1 below. All brine samples were analyzed at multiple
analytical laboratories (both third-party and also at the Company’s
analytical facility in El Dorado, Arkansas) in order to confirm
sample quality and maintain QA/QC procedures. The Standard Lithium
data provided in Table 1 below were all analyzed, performed, and
reported by Western Environmental Testing Laboratories of Sparks
NV, a third-party, accredited testing facility. Additional
representative lithium brine analyses from other lithium brine
projects in North America are provided for context.
Table 1: East Texas Lithium Brine
Analyses in Standard Lithium Project Areas
East Texas Sampling Location Name
[1] |
Lithiumconcentration (mg/L) |
Average Lithiumconcentration (mg/L)
[2] |
East Texas New Well - Upper Smackover Zone |
634 |
603 |
East Texas New Well - Upper Smackover Zone |
594 |
East Texas New Well - Mid Smackover Zone |
572 |
East Texas New Well - Mid Smackover Zone |
583 |
East Texas New Well - Lower Smackover Zone |
621 |
East Texas New Well - Lower Smackover Zone |
612 |
East Texas Re-entered well – Upper Smackover Zone |
298 |
313 |
East Texas Re-entered well – Upper Smackover Zone |
327 |
East Texas Sampled Well #1 in main project area – Upper Smackover
Zone |
395 |
392 |
East Texas Sampled Well #1 in main project area – Upper Smackover
Zone |
414 |
East Texas Sampled Well #1 in main project area – Upper Smackover
Zone |
366 |
East Texas Sampled Well #2 in main project area – Upper Smackover
Zone |
478 |
480 |
East Texas Sampled Well #2 in main project area – Upper Smackover
Zone |
500 |
East Texas Sampled Well #2 in main project area – Upper Smackover
Zone |
462 |
Reported Lithium Analyses from Other North American Brine
Projects |
California Salton Sea Geothermal Brine [3] |
|
204 |
Alberta Oilfield brine [4] |
|
75 |
Paradox Basin, Utah [5] |
|
123 |
Clayton Valley, Nevada [6] |
|
123 |
Notes:[1] Smackover Formation
descriptors (Upper, Middle, and Lower) are a local project area
naming convention. [2] For East Texas wells, average of all samples
taken from the wellbore, including duplicates where applicable to
provide a representative brine sample.[3] Average brine sample from
Salton Sea, Table 1, Warren 2021. Techno-Economic Analysis of
Lithium Extraction from Geothermal Brines. Golden, CO: National
Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL/TP-5700-79178. [4] Average brine
analysis from Table 7, E3 Lithium 43-101 Technical Report: Lithium
Resource Estimate, Bashaw District Project, central Alberta, Report
date: August 23, 2022, Effective date: July 11,2022 [5] Indicated
Resource Concentration, Anson Resources, Paradox Lithium Project,
Total JORC Mineral Resource estimation, DFS, September 2022[6]
Average Clayton Valley lithium brine composition, Table 14-3, Pure
Energy Minerals, Preliminary Economic Assessment (Rev. 1) of the
Clayton Valley Lithium Project Esmeralda County, Nevada, March 23,
2018
Quality AssuranceSteve Ross,
P.Geol., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed
and approved the relevant scientific and technical information that
forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Ross is a consultant to
the Company.
About Standard Lithium Ltd.
Standard Lithium is a leading near-commercial
lithium development company with a portfolio of projects in
process. The Company’s flagship projects, the LANXESS Property
Project and the South West Arkansas Project, are located in
southern Arkansas near the Louisiana stateline. The Company is
focused on the evaluation and testing of commercial lithium
extraction and purification from brine sourced from approximately
180,000 acres of leases across these two projects. The Company
operates a first-of-a-kind industrial-scale Direct Lithium
Extraction (DLE) Demonstration Plant at the LANXESS Property
Project. The scalable, environmentally friendly process eliminates
the use of evaporation ponds, reduces processing time from months
to hours and greatly increases the effective recovery of lithium. A
Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and Front-End Engineering Study
(FEED) for Phase 1A of the LANXESS Property Project commenced in
September 2022. A Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) of the South
West Arkansas Project commenced in May 2022. The Company is also
pursuing the resource development of other projects in the
Smackover Formation in East Texas, as well as approximately 45,000
acres of mineral leases located in the Mojave Desert in San
Bernardino County, California.
Standard Lithium is jointly listed on the TSX
Venture Exchange and the NYSE American under the trading symbol
“SLI”; and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “S5L”.
Please visit the Company’s website
at https://www.standardlithium.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies
of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release may contain certain
“Forward-Looking Statements” within the meaning of the United
States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and
applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news
release, the words “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”,
“target, “plan”, “forecast”, “may”, “schedule” and other similar
words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or
information. These forward-looking statements or information may
relate to development of a commercial lithium plant,
completion of definitive feasibility study, future prices of
commodities, accuracy of mineral or resource exploration and
drilling activity, reserves or resources, regulatory or government
requirements or approvals, the reliability of third party
information, continued access to mineral properties or
infrastructure, fluctuations in the market for lithium and its
derivatives, changes in exploration costs and government regulation
in Canada and the United States, and other factors or information.
Such statements represent the Company’s current views with respect
to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of
assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the
Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic,
competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and
uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause
results, performance or achievements to be materially different
from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The
Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to
update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect
changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other
events affecting such statements and information other than as
required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.
Photos accompanying this announcement are available
athttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/16045066-a60a-460b-90f2-74ed2195c78a
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2040290e-c8ef-4145-ab27-9844da115e39
For further information contact:
LHA Investor Relations
David Barnard
+1 415-433-3777
standardlithium@lhai.com
info@standardlithium.com
Twitter: @standardlithium
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/standard-lithium/
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