Arkansas may be sitting on 19 million tons of lithium
Researchers now estimate how much “white gold” may be found in southern Arkansas’s vast lithium reserves: up to 19 million tons, or enough to meet the projected 2030 world demand nine times over.
United States Geological Survey (USGS) researchers used water testing and machine learning to get an estimate of what might be found in an underground brine in the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas, a relic of an ancient sea that is now a vast limestone formation that stretches from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and into Florida. The researchers announced that it could contain anywhere from 5 million to 19 million tons of lithium.
“If commercially recoverable, the amount of lithium present would meet projected 2030 world demand for lithium in car batteries nine times over,” the researchers said in a news release.
Published in the journal Science Advances, the study cites that the lithium found in southern Arkansas could make up to 36% to 136% of the current US lithium reserve estimate – of course, that’s a sweeping number, but we get the gist. A lot of lithium, but the problem is how to get it out.
Lithium extraction – a nascent industry in the US – usually involves open-pit drilling and creating huge evaporation pools, all which can take months and years and leave destruction in their wake. Last year, ExxonMobil acquired the rights to 120,000 gross acres of the Smackover formation in southern Arkansas and have been using oil and gas drilling methods to access the saltwater brine about 10,000 feet underground.
To extract the lithium, the company uses direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, in which brine is pumped to the surface, then lithium and other minerals are extracted before sending the water back underground. It’s touted as more environmentally friendly, but climate activists say the technology is largely untested and question the danger of using it at scale and how it could affect the water supply. Exxon has said that it aims to enter production in 2027, according to a report in the New York Times, and “to be churning out enough lithium by 2030 to supply more than a million electric vehicles per year.”
Of course, there are other hurdles. According to the Arkansas Times, five corporations in total have been looking to start extracting lithium in southern Arkansas, and are currently locked in a dispute with landowners over how much to pay for mineral rights. The companies – Albemarle Corporation, ExxonMobil, Standard Lithium, Lanxess, and Tetra Technologies Inc. – filed a joint application in late July to set a royalty rate of 1.82%, which landowners say would allow the companies to illegally bypass the state’s rulemaking process.
To get to their estimates, researchers took samples from Arkansas and analyzed them at the USGS Brine Research Instrumentation and Experimental lab in Reston, Virginia, and then compared them with data from historic samples within the USGS Produced Waters Database of water from hydrocarbon production. Using machine learning, researchers combined lithium concentrations in brines with geological data to create maps that predict total lithium concentrations across the region, even in areas lacking lithium samples.
“Our research was able to estimate total lithium present in the southwestern portion of the Smackover in Arkansas for the first time,” said Katherine Knierim, a hydrologist and the study’s principal researcher. While noting that the estimates are “an in-place assessment,” she adds that they “estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace US imports of lithium and more.”
Photo: Courtesy of the United States Geological Survey
Read more: A California lake has enough lithium to power 375 million EVs
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Environment
More Iran sanctions and ‘drill baby, drill’: Oil market’s future is still uncertain under Trump
Offshore workers examine hydrocarbon samples aboard the Chevron Corp. Jack/St. Malo deepwater oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, U.S., on Friday, May 18, 2018.
Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. oil producers are looking forward to less regulations on crude production under a Donald Trump presidency, meaning higher oil supply and consequently lower prices.
But it’s not that straightforward: Trump who was announced Wednesday as the winner of the 2024 election, has also vowed to put more sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan barrels, meaning the global market could become tighter, potentially boosting prices.
At the same time, the increased likelihood of trade wars under Trump could dampen global economic growth and slow oil demand. So the picture for the market’s longer-term outlook is, well, decidedly mixed.
“Conceptually, the impact of a potential second Trump term on oil prices is ambiguous, with some short-term downside risk to Iran oil supply … and thus upside price risk,” Goldman Sachs commodities analysts wrote in a research note Monday. “But medium-term downside risk to oil demand and thus oil prices from downside risk to global GDP from a potential escalation in trade tensions.”
Trump expressed his enthusiasm for increased U.S. oil production while giving a speech from the Republican campaign headquarters in Florida on Wednesday, just hours before his victory was confirmed. He made a reference to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the independent candidate who he said would become a part of his team.
“Bobby, stay away from the oil, stay away from the liquid gold!” Trump said in a joking tone. “We have more than Saudi Arabia and Russia.” Kennedy is known for his history of environmental activism.
U.S. oil and gas production hit record highs under the Biden administration, which gradually changed its approach to the industry despite campaigning on pledges of environmental stewardship.
U.S. crude futures — both West Texas Intermediate and international benchmark Brent crude — are currently trading in the $70 to $75 per barrel range, which is lower than what many oil producers seek to balance their costs and budgets amid slowed global demand for oil and growing supply.
But a further push to open drilling projects, putting more supply on the market, would lead to lower prices, thereby decreasing revenues for American producers, said Cole Smead, president and CEO of Smead Capital.
“If the Trump administration opens up federal leases for oil and gas, Federal lands would get 25% per barrel of revenues. You will have a lot of trouble finding an oil company that can make money at $52.50 per barrel with what they have left from a $70 barrel,” Smead said in emailed notes. “The only thing that will cause drill baby drill to happen is higher oil prices based on these margins.”
“Drill baby, drill is going to run into the energy vigilantes,” he added. “Now that equity investors in the energy business know what free cash flow looks like they won’t give it up. They will allow capital expenditures to go up over their dead body.”
‘Clear competitive advantage’
The U.S. is the world’s largest oil producer, accounting for 22% of the global total, according to the Energy Information Administration, with Saudi Arabia next, producing 11%. The vast majority of U.S. crude is consumed within the country, which is also the world’s largest oil consumer.
The CEO of French oil major TotalEnergies told CNBC over the weekend that whoever wins the presidency should ensure that the U.S. doesn’t lose its energy advantage.
“U.S. energy has been unleashed … since the last two, three years, production of oil has never been so high,” in the country, Patrick Pouyanne told CNBC in Abu Dhabi.
“For me, today, the U.S. has a clear competitive advantage on energy compared to many [in the] rest of the world,” he said. “So I will be surprised to see whoever is elected lose the competitive advantage.”
Many in the market forecast lower crude prices due to Trump’s encouragement of domestic oil production and greater supply. Amrita Sen, founder and director of research at London-based Energy Aspects, sees it differently due to the specter of sanctions.
“Every hedge fund I’ve spoken to thinks bearish, because [Trump has] tended to tweet about low oil prices … I actually think it’s the opposite,” she said. “There’s an enormous amount of sanctioned barrels right now in the market, especially Iranian volumes.” Iran is currently producing 3.5 million barrels per day of crude or more, Sen said, with 1.8 million of those being exported, as sanctions and their enforcement loosened under the Biden administration.
“You could lose a million barrels per day of that … when Trump was in power, Iranian exports were just 400,000 barrels per day,” Sen said. “Now I’m not saying it’s going to go down all the way, because smuggling networks are bigger and better probably now, but you could lose a million there,” she said, adding that some Venezuelan barrels could go off the market as well.
For Smead, the outlook is bearish, as he predicts lower prices putting many producers — particularly those with higher production costs — in a less-than-ideal situation.
“The price of goods that are produced is the number one factor in America’s policies,” he said. “If you are not the low-cost producer, you should be scared.”
Environment
Toyota will hold off on EV investment decisions until ‘the very last moment’ as profits slip
Toyota is tightening the reins after seeing its first quarterly profit drop in two years. To maintain profits, Toyota plans to “hold off on investment decisions until the very last moment,” including EV and hybrid investments.
Toyota announced that its operating income in the first half of fiscal 2025 fell to around $16 billion (2.64 trillion yen).
In the second quarter, operating profit slipped 20% to about $7.55 billion (1.16 trillion yen), Toyota’s first quarterly profit loss in two years.
The lower profits are due to fewer car sales caused by certification issues that caused Toyota to pause production of its popular Yariss Cross and Corolla Fielder in Japan. A Prius recall in the US also led to fewer cars being sold globally.
As a result, Toyota’s global output fell for the first time in four years in the first half of fiscal 2025. Toyota built 4.71 million vehicles, down 7% from its record 5.06 million vehicles produced last year.
Toyota’s domestic output fell 9.4%, while overseas production dropped 6%. The company was hit especially hard in China, where domestic automakers like BYD continue squeezing foreign automakers out of the market with competitive, low-cost EVs.
Toyota to hold off on EV investments until last moment
Although Toyota said production is expected to recover in the second half of the fiscal year, the full-year total is expected to be 9.4 million, which is 100,000 vehicles less than last year.
Toyota’s vice president, Yoichi Miyazaki, outlined how Toyota plans to maintain operating income while still investing in the company’s future.
With EV and other next-gen tech investments dragging down profits, Toyota will “hold off on HEV, PHEV, BEV, or FCEV” investment decisions until “the very last moment,” Miyazaki said. The company plans to closely monitor the market before making a decision.
Meanwhile, the company is still advancing new tech, including advanced EV batteries. Toyota’s vice president confirmed the company is developing three types of EV batteries in-house: Ternary, LFP, and all-solid-state.
In March, Toyota’s battery unit (Toyota Battery) became a wholly owned subsidiary. The company said the move helps “optimize timing” and is crucial for mass-producing different types of batteries.
“There are two main things we want to accomplish,” Miyazaki explained. The first “is to increase how quickly we can respond to environmental changes in an age in which it is hard to predict the future.” Secondly, it is “to improve the fundamental capabilities that will enable us to carry on into the future.”
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Donald Trump wins a second presidential term, and BMW’s CEO Oliver Zipse came out with some quick remarks – amid what is likely panic among European automakers – that BMW will be fine because of its “very, very large footprint in the US.” Meanwhile, BMW’s profit margins hit a four-year low.
European automakers are now assessing the Trump victory and what that may mean for their businesses, as shares plummet today due to fears over escalating trade disputes. It’s no secret Trump’s stance on electric vehicles – despite bringing Elon Musk into the fold – and foreign goods, and his second term will likely see an unraveling of Biden’s investments in green energy, a rolling back on EV mandates and other policies aimed at cutting CO2 emissions alongside stricter tariffs on foreign-made vehicles, and a total abandonment of US involvement in the Paris Climate Accords. Of course, the news this morning hit hard for some automakers in Europe, adding to a mountain of problems amid low sales in key markets, both at home in Europe and in China.
But Zipse says BMW can likely breathe a sigh of relief since the company has even “more of an advantage” despite what will be higher tariffs due to having a huge footprint in the US, Reuters reported.
The remarks came this morning central Europe time after Trump proclaimed he had taken the win, with Zipse presenting BMW’s third-quarter results. “In this respect, we shouldn’t be too nervous about what might happen,” Zipse said.
BMW has the group’s largest factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in addition to 30 locations around the country in 12 states, the report said.
BMW’s third-quarter profit fell 61% to 1.7 billion euros ($1.82 billion) due to lagging sales in China, the US, and Europe, Reuters reported. Bloomberg also reported that “BMW AG’s main measure of profitability fell to the lowest in more than four years in the third quarter,” the fallout from the massive recall of 1.5 million vehicles due to a faulty braking system supplied by Contential and weak demand in the Chinese market. Still, despite these hardships, BMW has said that it increased its sales of fully electric vehicles by +19,1% in the first nine months of this year, with a total of 294,054 BEVs delivered. BMW added that sales of BEVs rose by +22.6% to 266,151 vehicles, with the Mini brand seeing its fully-electric vehicle sales grow by +54.3% in the third quarter.
We’ll likely hear some response from other automakers on Trump’s win soon. “We’re expecting that it will be difficult for car makers and exporters this morning,” Nicolas Forest, chief investment officer at Candriam, told Reuters. “Trump could implement tariffs through executive orders, so for German carmakers or French luxury groups, everything Europe exports, it’s a risk.”
The election news is extremely fresh, but Trump has suggested a 10% or more tariffs on goods imported into the US, while giving him the option to set higher tariffs on certain countries that have put tariffs on US imports. He has suggested imposing as high as 200% tariffs on some imported cars, and wants to keep cars from Mexico out of the country. China’s BYD, for one, has paused its plan to build a factory in Mexico, which would be a key production site for access into the US, until after the election. BMW plans to start building its next-gen BEVs dubbed the “Neue Klasse” in Mexico in 2027.
Trump of course has China in his crosshairs and plans to phase out Chinese imports during his second term, while also prohibiting Chinese companies from owning US real estate and infrastructure in the energy and tech sectors.
Photo: BMW
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