Smackover Lithium, a joint partnership between Standard Lithium and Equinor in its southwest Arkansas project, announced that it has amended its binding commercial offtake agreement with Trafigura Trading.
The amendment provides for additional offtake volumes to complete the Project’s customer offtake process and to move toward finalizing the ongoing debt financing process, according to a press release. Standard Lithium is the Canadian lithium-development company advancing the southwest Arkansas lithium play. Equinor is an energy company based in Norway, and Trafigura is a global supply and infrastructure firm based in Singapore.
According to a press release, Smackover Lithium now has the option, at its own election, to supply Trafigura with up to an additional 4,000 metric tonnes of battery-quality lithium carbonate in each year of the 10-year agreement beginning at the start of commercial production. Combined with the initial 8,000 metric tonnes per year commitment under the agreement, the maximum possible volumes that can be delivered to Trafigura have increased to 12,000 metric tonnes of battery-quality lithium carbonate per year. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“This is a pivotal milestone for the SWA project and a testament to the strength of our customer relationships,” said David Park, Standard Lithium CEO. “The offtake process has been one of the most important and time-intensive workstreams and we now have the volume commitments needed to support our project debt financing, as well as the flexibility to continue to pursue transactions that maximize value for our stakeholders. Our path forward is clear as we focus on finalizing and closing the project financing…and beginning construction.”
A final investment decision on the project is expected later this year before it moves into construction. The first commercial production of battery-quality lithium carbonate out of the Smackover play is expected in 2029.
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