The lithium miner is closer to producing its first battery-grade lithium.
Shares of Standard Lithium (SLI 12.79%) jumped sharply today, surging 25% in early-morning trading and still holding up about 15% through 11:30 a.m. ET Thursday. And, it isn’t about tariffs or trade wars or even lithium prices today.
Standard Lithium is yet to start commercial production, but it has just hit a major milestone that moves it closer to the goal.
Image source: Getty Images.
Standard Lithium inches closer to first production
Standard Lithium is still in the pre-production stage. Its flagship projects are located in the lithium-brine-rich resource, the Smackover Formation, which extends from central Texas to the Florida panhandle. Standard Lithium is focused on projects in South-West Arkansas (SWA) and East Texas within the Smackover Formation.
While the company is still exploring East Texas and has only filed an initial resource estimate for the deposit, the SWA project is in the advanced stages now.
Standard Lithium is jointly developing SWA with Equinor (EQNR -0.61%), with Standard Lithium owning a 55% stake. On Oct. 14, it filed a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for the project, outlining an annual production capacity of 22,500 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate over a 20-year lifespan.
A DFS is the cornerstone for a mine, as it confirms its commercial viability.
In other words, it is now proven that Standard Lithium can economically mine lithium from SWA and, therefore, move on to the nest stage of raising funds to start the production process. So it’s a major milestone for the company and explains why the lithium stock is flying higher.
Time to buy Standard Lithium stock hand over fist?
Though the DFS sets the stage for commercial extraction of lithium from SWA, it’s still a time-consuming process.
Standard Lithium is estimating a 34-month timeline, from construction to the start of commercial operations. So if construction begins in early 2026, the earliest expected date for first commercial production is around the end of 2028, provided Standard Lithium can secure capital, finalize the technical plans, and start and complete construction at the project on time.
Keep in mind that Standard Lithium stock has already doubled within just one month and has surged over 300% so far in 2025, as of this writing. However, that rally was largely fueled by speculation of a possible U.S. government stake.