ND Could See Lithium Boom from Oilfield Brine
North Dakota’s vast Bakken oilfields could soon yield another treasure: lithium, the battery metal fueling the technology revolution.
The Renewable Energy Council on Tuesday recommended approving a $500,000 grant to Wellspring Hydro, a company aiming to commercialize extracting lithium from the millions of gallons of salty produced water generated daily by oilfield operations.
The grant, if finalized by the North Dakota Industrial Commission on Oct. 27, would propel Wellspring’s modular direct lithium extraction technology from field trials to full-scale production. Chief Operating Officer Mat Hirst, in a presentation to the council, described the project’s potential to tap up to 50,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent annually, enough to rival major U.S. projects and address a glaring domestic shortfall in critical minerals.
The Bakken’s produced water currently burdens producers with disposal costs and environmental concerns. Wellspring’s process uses proprietary ion-exchange media to selectively pull lithium from the brine, leaving the water largely unchanged for reinjection into disposal wells. Hirst said field trials in June and July near Killdeer demonstrated striking efficiency: up to 99 percent lithium removal in runs lasting as little as 15 minutes, with averages exceeding 95 percent across multiple tests.
He highlighted the sustainability edge over traditional lithium mining, which guzzles freshwater in arid regions.
~Western Dakota
Energy Association