Standard Lithium Ltd. (“Standard Lithium” or the “Company”) (TSXV:SLI) (NYSE American:SLI) (FRA:S5L), a leading near-commercial lithium company, today announced its financial and operating results for the fiscal first quarter 2025 ended September 30, 2024.
“Our fiscal first quarter highlights demonstrate our commitment to doing what we say we’re going to do,” said David Park, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Standard Lithium. “We told you that we would pursue Government grants, and we have been conditionally approved for $225 million – one of the largest grant awards for a domestic critical minerals project – from the U.S. Department of Energy. The conditional grant is a testament to the world-class caliber of the South West Arkansas project and the good work the team has done to de-risk and advance the project now to a FEED stage.”
“Now is the time for us to prioritize, focus and execute. Our attention turns to bringing production online for our shareholders, and the next right step for us is to move forward with customer off-take commitments and financing. We can then continue to advance, in partnership with Equinor, the South West Arkansas project and leasing foothold in East Texas.”
Fiscal First Quarter 2025 Highlights
All amounts are in US dollars.
- Received conditional $225 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) for the South West Arkansas Project (“SWA”). The grant is expected to support construction of the Central Processing Facility for Phase 1 of the SWA project in the Smackover Formation. Phase 1 is currently contemplated to produce 22,500 tonnes of battery-quality lithium carbonate annually beginning in 2028. The grant is one of the largest ever awarded to a U.S. critical minerals project.
- Appointed David Park as Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company. Mr. Park assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) on September 1, 2024, following the retirement of CEO, Director and founder Robert Mintak. Mr. Park joined the Company as a strategic advisor in July 2023 at Mr. Mintak’s request and worked closely with him, playing a pivotal role in securing the strategic partnership with Equinor. Previously, Mr. Park served in various leadership roles at Koch Industries for 28 years and brings with him significant experience in the energy and industrial sectors. Mr. Mintak has been retained as an advisor to the Company and continues to ensure the transfer of institutional knowledge to the executive team.
- Change in reporting and presentation currency from CAD to USD. Effective July 1, 2024, the Company began using USD rather than CAD in its financial reporting and external marketing materials. The Company made this change given that its most significant assets and liabilities are denominated in USD and for consistency with peer companies in the lithium industry.
Cash and working capital of $28.9 million and $24.7 million, respectively, as of September 30, 2024.
- The Company has no term or revolving debt obligations as of September 30, 2024.
Subsequent Events to the Fiscal First Quarter 2025
- Entered into a license agreement (“Agreement”) with Koch Technology Solutions (“KTS”) to deploy and use KTS’ Li-Pro™ Lithium Selective Sorption (“Li-pro LSS”) technology. Under the license agreement, SWA Lithium, the jointly-owned U.S. subsidiary of Standard Lithium and Equinor, will utilize Li-pro LSS at the commercial processing facility for Phase 1 of the SWA project. The Agreement includes a first-of-its-kind performance guarantee from KTS for lithium recovery, contaminant rejection and water use. In addition, it allows for continued, exclusive joint development of the technology in the Smackover Formation.
- Commercial-scale direct lithium extraction (“DLE”) at the Demonstration Plant continues to exceed expectations. The Company installed a commercial-scale DLE column in late March 2024 and has been operating the column continuously. The column is a Li-pro LSS unit, supplied by KTS and identical to those currently being integrated into the front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for the SWA project. Key technical highlights of the commercial-scale DLE column include: lithium recovery efficiency of 95.4% and excellent contaminant rejection rates. Nearly 10,000 operational cycles have been completed by the Li-pro LSS technology to date.
