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Awards/PROJECT GRANT (B)

$125,666,971

Department of Energy·Department of Energy

to SWA LITHIUM LLC

critical-mineralsexpiredONGOING · MOD OF 2025 CONTRACT
WORK BEGAN2025-01-01·LATEST ACTION2026-03-17·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDASST_NON_DEMS0000099_089
Award description

BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW (BIL) – DOMESTIC PRODUCTION OF LITHIUM CARBONATE FROM THE SMACKOVER FORMATION BRINES IN SOUTHERN ARKANSAS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE SOUTH WEST ARKANSAS (SWA) PROJECT IS TO CONSTRUCT THE LARGEST AND FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND DIRECT LITHIUM EXTRACTION (DLE) FACILITY PRODUCING BATTERY-QUALITY LITHIUM CARBONATE (LI2CO3) FROM DOMESTIC LI BRINE IN NORTH AMERICA.

Verbatim from USAspending.gov. Capitalization, abbreviations, and codes are unchanged.

The Buildout's read

What the model surfaced from this award

Confidence: high
In plain English

Latest obligation on the 2025 SWA lithium project to build North America's first direct lithium extraction facility producing battery-grade carbonate from Arkansas brines.

Sub-sectors
lithium-extractiondomestic-productionbattery-supply-chain
Why this matters

Reduces U.S. dependence on foreign lithium imports for EV batteries; domestic supply chain resilience for critical energy transition infrastructure.

Supply-chain signal

Establishes domestic lithium carbonate production, reducing reliance on imported material and strengthening the upstream supply chain for battery manufacturers.

U.S.–China competition angle

China controls ~60% of global lithium processing; this facility directly competes with Chinese dominance in battery-material refining.

Generated by award_classification v2.1.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-05-25. Cost: $0.003137.

Period of performance
Start
2025-01-01
End
2026-06-30
Status
expired13 days ago
Sources

The Buildout does not edit federal records. Any inaccuracy reflects the upstream source; it will update here when corrected there.

$125.7M Department of Energy — The Buildout — The Buildout