Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was a keynote speaker at the 2025 Arkansas Lithium Innovation Summit, pictured here on Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Advocate)
The state of play for Arkansas’ young-yet-ambitious lithium industry has changed markedly compared to one year ago, even as questions remain about the impacts of low lithium prices on projects.
Almost exactly a year after prospective producers were dealt a defeat by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission over proposed royalty payments, business executives and lawmakers extolled the potential of the state’s lithium industry at the 2025 edition of the Arkansas Lithium Innovation Summit last month. Speakers from Google, Standard Lithium, Chevron, Fastmarkets and more spoke of how Arkansas’ lithium reserves could play into national security objectives, data centers for artificial intelligence and the clean energy transition…