Direct lithium extraction

What it is

Direct lithium extraction (DLE) is a family of industrial processes that pull lithium ions selectively from brine without the 12-to-24-month solar evaporation step used in Chile's Atacama salt flats and Argentina's Puna. Three technology families are in commercial or near-commercial use: adsorption using manganese or titanium-oxide ion sieves, ion exchange and solvent extraction via liquid-liquid processes, and membrane or electrochemical separation. All three pump brine through a processing unit that binds lithium selectively, return spent brine to the source aquifer, then regenerate the sorbent to release a concentrated lithium solution for downstream refining to lithium carbonate or hydroxide. Reported recovery rates exceed 90%, compared with 30-to-40% in conventional Atacama evaporation. The smaller land and water footprint unlocks feedstocks previously too dilute or logistically unsuitable for evaporation ponds, including oilfield produced water, geothermal brine, and low-concentration continental aquifers.

History

Lithium ion sieve chemistry originated in South Korean and Japanese laboratories in the 1990s as a bench alternative to slow evaporation. Commercial interest accelerated sharply from 2020 to 2023, when lithium carbonate prices peaked above US$80,000 per tonne LCE, making previously marginal technologies attractive to investors. Argentina's Eramet opened the first purpose-built commercial DLE plant at Centenario-Ratones in Salta province in 2023 at small scale. The US Department of Energy committed US$3 billion across 25 critical-mineral projects in 2024 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, with DLE pilot operations in Arkansas and Nevada among the recipients. March 2026 brought two milestones within days of each other: Rio Tinto made its first commercial export from the hybrid-DLE Rincon project in Salta, and EnergyX commissioned Project Lonestar in Hooks, Texas, the first DLE plant operating commercially on US soil.

Current state

As of mid-2026, the global DLE market is valued at US$1.54 billion and forecast at US$5.72 billion by 2036. Active commercial or near-commercial projects include Rio Tinto's 60,000-tpa Rincon hybrid DLE in Salta, EnergyX's 250-tpa Project Lonestar in Texas, Standard Lithium's Smackover Arkansas operation, and Exxon's Saltwerx oilfield brine project. Albemarle has filed a US$3.1 billion DLE environmental review with Chile's COREMA, claiming 90% return of processed brine to the Atacama salt flat. Resources for the Future estimated in 2025 that most US DLE projects require approximately US$16,000 per tonne LCE to break even; lithium prices as of mid-2026 were around US$10,000 per tonne, leaving the sector dependent on price recovery or policy support. Combined theoretical capacity of four major US projects exceeds 55,000 tonnes per year, around 13% of projected US annual demand.

Relationships

DLE's strategic significance flows from the US Inflation Reduction Act's foreign entity of concern (FEOC) provisions, which bar lithium processed through Chinese facilities from qualifying for Section 30D electric-vehicle tax credits. The US Smackover Formation brine corridor in Arkansas and Texas offers the most direct FEOC-compliant domestic supply path that does not depend on Australian spodumene or Chilean solar evaporation. In Chile, Albemarle's Atacama DLE proposal reframes the technology as a social-licence argument: returning 90% of processed brine to the salt flat could resolve the politically sensitive brine-depletion debate that has complicated Chilean lithium governance since 2021. Rio Tinto's Rincon project, co-financed by the International Finance Corporation, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and Export Finance Australia, established a template for channelling multilateral development finance into DLE-assisted critical-mineral supply chains, qualifying the project for IRA Section 30D carve-outs.

What to watch

• Whether lithium prices recover toward the US$16,000 per tonne breakeven needed for US Smackover DLE projects without direct subsidy.
• EnergyX's ramp from 250 tpa to its 12,500 tpa Phase 1 target, and whether Smackover brine yields match demonstration recovery rates at commercial throughput.
• Chile's COREMA review of Albemarle's US$3.1 billion DLE proposal and the independent hydrological assessment of the brine-return claim.
• Whether the US government establishes DLE price floors; RFF analysis found a US$20,000 per tonne floor would cost over US$10 billion through 2047.
• Rincon's production ramp toward 3,000 tpa LCE by end-2026 as a proof point for hybrid DLE at commercial scale.