Stardust Power (Nasdaq: SDST), a US battery-grade lithium product developer, has officially broken ground on its $1.2 billion lithium refinery in Oklahoma, which will be one of the largest in the US.
The facility will eventually be able to produce up to 50,000 metric tons per year of battery-grade lithium.
January 27, 2025, update: Last month, Stardust Power completed and announced the acquisition of its 66-acre site in Muskogee, Oklahoma. “With the land acquired and necessary construction permits secured in 2024, we are excited to break ground and begin construction,” said Roshan Pujari, founder and CEO of Stardust Power.
The refinery will be developed in two phases: The first will construct a production line capable of producing up to 25,000 metric tons per year, and the second will add another production line, bringing the total capacity to 50,000 metric tons per year.
January 17, 2024: Stardust Power first announced it would build the “US’s largest battery-grade lithium refinery in Oklahoma” in January 2024.
The refinery will be in Southside Industrial Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma, southeast of Tulsa. Connecticut-based Stardust Power said it selected Muskogee because of the state’s central US location for delivery and shipment. Muskogee also has a skilled workforce trained in oil and gas engineering.
It will use Port Muskogee on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System to ship lithium brine water to the refinery, where it will derive the lithium, and then use the same inland waterway system to ship battery-grade lithium out.
Roshan Pujari, founder and CEO of Stardust Power, said, “Currently there is no large-scale refinery for battery-grade lithium in the United States… When fully operational, our new lithium refinery will both speed America’s energy transition and boost Oklahoma’s local economy…”
Stardust Power’s refinery is expected to be eligible to receive up to $257 million in state and federal economic incentives for the facility’s buildout. The company currently expects to break ground in the first half of 2024.
In November, Stardust Power announced it was set to list on the Nasdaq through a SPAC deal with acquisition company Global Partner Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: GPAC).
In 2022, Oklahoma ranked third in the US for electricity generation from wind, which accounted for 93% of the state’s total renewable generation. But with five petroleum refineries, it’s also the country’s fifth-largest producer of marketed natural gas and the sixth-largest producer of crude oil.
Top comment by FC
There’s also a huge lithium mine and refinery being constructed in North Carolina by Piedmont Lithium. I believe Electrek did a story on this a couple of years ago. The company says they plan to start construction this year or next, while full scale production would begin in 24-36 months. NC has a lithium belt that used to be one of the largest producers of lithium, especially back during the nuclear warhead production age. Now EVs are bringing back the need for a homegrown lithium supply. The less we rely on China for any of our supply chain, the better. I hope the US government makes it difficult for foreign entities to come in and snap up our natural resources by putting limits in place on foreign ownership of mining and refinement facilities. The Chinese have already bought up a huge chunk of our farmland and the industrial scale animal processing (like Smithfield Foods). We can’t let the same thing happen here.
Read more: A California lake has enough lithium to power 375 million EVs
Photo: Port Muskogee
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