This meadow near Mount Vernon in Franklin County is where GeoFrame Energy will extract lithium, one of the key ingredients for modern batteries. (Contributed Photo)

Houston-based Halliburton has won a contract for a lithium extraction project in Northeast Texas.

Halliburton will plan and design GeoFrame Energy’s first demonstration phase wells in the Smackover Formation for a project using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE).

GeoFrame Energy has leased 8,000 acres from property owners in Franklin County.

Work is expected to begin in late 2025.

“GeoFrame Energy is in an excellent position to capitalize on the current demand for lithium through brine extraction,” said Duane Sherritt, vice president of Halliburton’s low carbon solutions. “Halliburton’s 100-year legacy of well expertise and execution, combined with innovation to support new energy projects and decades of experience in the Smackover Formation, makes us the best candidate to help support GeoFrame Energy’s vision.”

Bruce Cutright, CEO of GeoFrame Energy, same the project “will lead the United States’ domestic lithium production and will be the first to deliver battery-grade lithium carbonate from the Smackover Formation.”

Cutright said GeoFrame Energy plans to use geothermal brine to generate renewable electricity through zero-emission binary cycle generators.

“This process will power its direct lithium extraction and lithium carbonate production plant with renewable energy,” Halliburton said in a statement. “The company will sell the excess geothermal power produced electricity to the grid.”

In April, representatives of GeoFrame Energy told a public meeting in Mount Vernon that the project would create more than 100 local jobs and triple the Franklin County city’s budget through an influx of tax revenue.

GeoFrame Energy’s Canadian-based competitor, Standard Lithium, also has an operation in Franklin County.

If GeoFrame Energy’s production target is achieved, the Franklin County project would produce more lithium than any single mine on the continent and almost as much as Standard Lithium advertised for its Arkansas and East Texas operations combined.