The landowners’ proposal is “a level that would strain project cash flows based on our modelling,” Jones said in a note on Thursday. “We assume a 2.5% royalty in our base case, within the range of royalties applied in other jurisdictions. We anticipate the commission will take a balanced approach to support development of Arkansas’s lithium industry.”
This week, the United States Geological Survey and the Arkansas government said they’d found enough lithium in brine in the Smackover Formation within the state to supply global demand. They estimated the amount in the formation’s porous limestone left from an ancient sea at 5 million tonnes to 19 million tonnes. Scientists used water testing and machine learning to calculate the resource. The formation stretches from Texas to Florida, suggesting there could be even more lithium.
Standard project
The discovery comes as Standard and partner…
