Trump Fast-Tracks Federal Permitting for Standard Lithium’s Arkansas Project

Inside one of two of Standard Lithium Ltd.'s demonstration plants in El Dorado, which started producing lithium products in May 2020. (Madison Ogle)

The White House has moved to speed up federal permitting for Standard Lithium’s billion-dollar lithium production facility in Lafayette County.

The South West Arkansas Project, as its known, is among 10 critical mineral production projects now listed under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, which was established to streamline the permitting process for large, complex infrastructure projects.

In addition to lithium, a key ingredient in many types of batteries, the projects would supply minerals including gold, copper and potash.

The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council announced the designations in response to an executive order by President Donald Trump to take measures to increase U.S. mineral production. FAST-41 status aims to improve the timeliness, predictability and transparency of federal environmental reviews and authorizations for infrastructure projects.

In a news release, the White House said “many more” projects are expected to be added to the list in the coming weeks.

A permitting timetable for the South West Arkansas Project is expected to be published on or before May 2. The U.S. Department of Energy is listed as the lead federal agency for permitting on the project.

Standard Lithium in January secured a $225 million grant from the Department of Energy to build the lithium plant near Lewisville. The company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has been working to distill battery-quality lithium products from south Arkansas brinefields for nearly 10 years. The first phase of production could start as early as 2028.

Hurdles remain at the state level. The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission rejected a group royalty rate application by Standard Lithium and four other prospectors, saying the proposed royalty wouldn’t be fair to Arkansas rights owners. Production can’t begin in Arkansas until a royalty is set.

Standard Lithium plans to independently apply for a royalty next time.