Saudi Arabia has extracted lithium from oilfield runoffs, vice minister says

Saudi Arabia has successfully extracted lithium from brine samples from national giant Aramco’s oilfields and plans to launch a commercial pilot program for direct extraction soon, the Saudi vice minister of mining affairs said on Tuesday.

Lithium Infinity, also known as Lihytech, a start-up launched out of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, will lead the extraction project with cooperation from Saudi mining company Ma’aden and Aramco, Khalid al-Mudaifer told Reuters.

“They are extracting lithium through their new technology they have developed in King Abdullah University for Science and Technology and they are in accelerated development in this regard,” he said.

“They’re building a commercial pilot at the oil fields. So the brines that come out of the field will feed into this commercial pilot on a continuous basis,” added Al-Mudaifer.

Lithium is a key component in the batteries of electric cars, laptops, and smartphones. Reuters previously revealed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ national oil companies planned to extract the mineral from oil runoffs.

Other oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum, plan to take advantage of emerging technologies to filter lithium from brine, as the world seeks to move away from fossil fuels.

The vice minister said that while the cost of extracting lithium from the brine runoffs from oil fields remained higher than the traditional method of extraction from salt flats, but added he expected that if lithium prices grew the project would soon be commercially viable.

Aramco, KAUST, and Ma’aden did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comments. Ma’aden is majority owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.

Saudi Arabia, whose economy for decades has relied on oil, has spent billions on trying to turn itself into a hub for EVs as part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempts to find alternative sources of wealth.