An abundance of lithium in the region has a new company at TexAmericas Center ready to invest in the resources Bowie County has to offer.
Energy Exploration Technologies, Inc. (EnergyX) unveiled their lithium extraction and refining demonstration plant in Hooks.
The company has refurbished a 22,000 square foot former defense bunker on the TexAmericas Center East Campus to serve as the demonstration plant, the flagship extraction facility for Project Lonestar.
Project Lonestar is hailed as a “first-of-its-kind, United States-based lithium production company” and the first direct lithium extraction plant in Texas.
The facility is extracting from the Smackover formation which is about 8,000 to 9,000 feet below the ground’s surface in this region. The Smackover formation previously yielded oil and natural gas.
“We did a drill a couple months before and we found … above average grade for this region. We have some data points from the different vendors, different wells here,” said Praveen Tippani, EnergyX senior director of operations at Lonestar.
The demonstration plant will produce 1,660 barrels of commercial grade lithium per day and 250 tons per year, Tippani said.
While the production plant is operating, work is set to begin on a commercial facility that can extract 50,000 tons per year.
The mines, Conrad said, extract the lithium from the brine under the earth but return the water to the formation.
“Our upstream reinjection plan is going to be optimized in a way that we’re making sure that we’re reinjecting back into the same formation,” Conrad said.
The current facility plans to hire up to 40 people to work the machinery round the clock, with a goal of employing approximately 200 people by the time the commercial plant is running in fourth quarter 2028, said Eric Conrad, project manager.
“We’re excited for what the future will be for EnergyX. NOt only with the demonstration plant, but with their large manufacturing plant,” said Scott Norton, TexAmericas president and CEO. “EnergyX plans to invest millions of dollars to support efforts in the local community. So they are really the type of industry that we like to recruit … Based upon studies that they have done, once they get fully operational, they announced that, over a 10-year period, they’d have over a $17 billion economic impact on this region or about $1.7 billion a year, which is equivalent to what Red River Army Depot’s economic impact has on this region.”
EnergyX said the lithium they are mining will be used for battery production which gives the U.S. a foothold on the industry which has primarily been held by China.
EnergyX is headquartered in Austin and was founded in 2018 by Teague Egan.
Project Lonestar is the second large mining project for the company. They are currently mining at Project Black Giant in Chile.
