Standard Lithium and Equinor have filed a preliminary economic assessment for their Franklin lithium project in East Texas, outlining a potential production capacity of 70,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate annually and a projected pre-tax net present value of $5.9 billion.
What is planned for the East Texas project?
The Franklin project is the partnership's first defined development area in the East Texas portion of the Smackover Formation, a geological region containing lithium-rich brine.
The assessment models a 20-year operating life, with up to 70,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate production capacity per year and approximately 1.29 million metric tons produced over the project's modeled life. The companies say the project is part of a broader goal to develop more than 100,000 metric tons of annual lithium chemical production capacity in Texas across multiple phases and projects.
The preliminary assessment estimates an unlevered pre-tax net present value of $5.9 billion, a 25.7% pre-tax internal rate of return, and a three-year pre-tax payback period. It estimates average annual cash operating costs of $4,226 per metric ton.
Those figures are projections, not guaranteed returns. The companies' technical materials caution that a preliminary economic assessment is an early-stage study and includes inferred mineral resources, meaning there is no certainty the modeled results will be achieved.
What comes next?
The report recommends advancing the project to a preliminary feasibility study. Standard Lithium and Equinor also plan further direct lithium extraction testing using lessons from Standard Lithium's demonstration plant and its South West Arkansas project.
The companies are evaluating potential additional opportunities involving bromine and potash. The assessment also considers a scenario with a co-located bromine facility capable of producing 50,000 metric tons annually, although bromine and potash are not included in the project's headline lithium-only economic case.
Standard Lithium holds a 55% interest in the partnership, with Equinor holding the remaining 45%. The filing marks another step in evaluating whether East Texas lithium resources can support large-scale domestic production later this decade and into the 2030s.
