From Brine to Battery: EnergyX's Texas Lithium Gamble

EnergyX's Project Lonestar becomes the first DLE lithium facility in Texas, validating proprietary extraction tech at industrial scale

8 Apr 2026

A small industrial facility in Hooks, Texas, began producing battery-grade lithium in late March, drawing attention from energy analysts and supply-chain executives who have long watched the United States struggle to secure domestic sources of a mineral essential to electric vehicles and grid storage. The plant, developed by EnergyX and known as Project Lonestar, is the first facility in the country to process lithium extracted directly from brine deposits in the Smackover formation, a geological band stretching from Texas to Arkansas that holds some of the most concentrated lithium reserves in North America.

The project, backed by $30 million in investment, uses a proprietary system the company calls GET-Lit, which combines adsorption, solvent extraction, and selective membrane technologies, including electrodialysis and selective bipolar electrodialysis, to move from raw brine to refined lithium carbonate in a matter of days. That compressed timeline stands in sharp contrast to conventional evaporation pond methods, which can require up to 18 months to yield battery-grade material. Company statements put production costs at approximately $3,500 per metric ton, compared with roughly $4,200 using traditional approaches. At current capacity, the plant yields about 250 metric tons per year, a volume suited to supplying samples for customer qualification rather than fulfilling large-scale commercial orders.

EnergyX has indicated that a commercial facility targeting 50,000 metric tons annually is planned as a subsequent phase, a project analysts said would require investment exceeding one billion dollars. The federal government has signaled its own interest in accelerating that trajectory. On April 7, the Department of Energy announced up to $69 million in funding through its Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator program, with a dedicated category covering cost-competitive direct lithium extraction and processing. Standard Lithium, a separate company, is targeting 2028 for first production at a project in southwestern Arkansas, which it describes as the first commercial-scale direct extraction facility planned for the Americas.

Yet analysts cautioned against overstating the immediate significance of Project Lonestar. At its current output, the facility functions primarily as a validation platform, confirming that the technology performs under industrial conditions rather than closing the gap between domestic supply and rapidly rising demand. The Smackover formation has been historically underutilized, officials have noted, largely because no viable commercial extraction infrastructure previously existed to access its reserves.

Whether the technology's demonstrated performance can be translated quickly enough into the scale required to matter geopolitically remains the central question. The results of Project Lonestar, along with the broader federal push to finance domestic critical mineral processing, could shape how aggressively the United States repositions its battery supply chain in the years ahead.