Arkansas economic leaders are preparing for their second annual lithium summit[1] to take place in Little Rock on Oct. 28-29, 2025.
Secretary of Commerce Hugh McDonald, who appeared on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, said this year’s summit will feature notable speakers, workshops and meetings with stakeholders, and other events to better network the burgeoning industry.
“We’re dealing with effectively building a brand new industry on top of the process industries that already exist in South Arkansas, but it’s building relationships,” said McDonald. “Having companies come here that don’t know anything about Arkansas, having them understand about the business environment, the pro-business environment in Arkansas, the governor’s going to be there as well. She’s fully engaged in this process.”
“So the outcome is helping really the nation build out the entire supply chain in the lithium supply chain of which the midstream and upstream portions of that supply chain is very much lacking in the United States. That’s where we can play a much significant role,” he added.
State leaders are banking that new technologies and South Arkansas’ bromine deposits will lead to a robust lithium industry eventually in the state. Arkansas has passed new laws to further incentivize the lithium industry, developed research and regulations, and created business incubators to attract more investment.
Lithium is used in a variety of products, notably in pacemakers, drones and batteries for cell phones and electric vehicles. China is the world’s largest producer of lithium. In Arkansas, new technology has experimented, successfully so far, in extracting lithium from bromine in a new manner. Instead of using evaporation to separate lithium from bromine, a chemical process has been developed to separate lithium molecules, which is at the center of hope for acceleration for Arkansas’ potential lithium industry in the Smackover Formation.
“We’ve gone from will this happen to, this is going to happen to, what do we need to do to get ready for this to happen?” said Sheryl Edwards, Southern Arkansas University Associate Vice President and head of LiTHIUMLEARNS, a workforce program for the industry. She appeared with McDonald on this week’s TB&P program.
“There are groups all over town and all over southwest Arkansas who are working on different initiatives to make sure that we are ready… We are looking at housing, we’re looking at infrastructure, we’re looking at the water supply, and this could not be happening without the investment that the state of Arkansas is making to bring this opportunity to southwest Arkansas,” she said.
Edwards’ LiTHIUMLEARNS program is helping develop workforce opportunities in the region, especially for homegrown talent. She said there is already hiring taking place.
“Right now, we have two companies that produce bromine from the Smackover Formation in southwest Arkansas. Students who graduate between now and when the first lithium plant goes fully commercially, operable can take jobs there. They can further an education at one of our two- or four-year institutions like Southern Arkansas University at our College of Science and Engineering. Or they can take an apprenticeship with one of those existing companies that are there. So there’s a lot of different opportunities,” she added.
McDonald also spoke to the recent successes Arkansas has had in landing major economic job prospects. In the last year, there have been 19 announcements of new or expanding companies in the state. Most recently, West Memphis was named as the location for a $4 billion Google data center. Available power and land helped recruit Google, he said. However, McDonald said he was encouraged by the prospects for Arkansas to land even more companies in the near future.
“The pipeline is strong,” he said.
You can watch McDonald and Edwards full interview in the video below.
Related
References
- ^ second annual lithium summit (info.arkansasedc.com)