America’s Answer to China’s Lithium Stranglehold Is Hiding in the Permian Basin

Permian Basin innovator LibertyStream is betting big that the “drill baby drill” era may have an unexpected side effect: a surge in lithium feedstock flowing through America’s existing oil infrastructure network.

Every single day, Texas’ prolific Permian Basin oil production also handles more than 20 million barrels of produced water. And that mineral-rich wastewater brought to the surface during crude production contains dissolved lithium. As U. S.