Frequently Asked Questions

Energy Exploration Technologies, known as EnergyX, is a next-generation energy technology company advancing the critical materials that power the global energy transition. Our modular and brine agnostic flow sheet integrates a suite of Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technologies, supported by more than 120 patents, into a scalable and high-efficiency system. We also own nearly 150,000 gross acres of world-class lithium resources in Chile and the United States, positioning EnergyX as both a technology innovator and a resource developer. Together, these capabilities make EnergyX a fully integrated platform for the future of lithium production

EnergyX was founded by serial entrepreneur Teague Egan and incorporated on December 18, 2018 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Lithium is the backbone of modern energy storage and the key ingredient in batteries that power electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and large-scale renewable energy systems. As the world accelerates toward electrification, demand for lithium is soaring far faster than current supply. Meeting climate and energy goals requires massive growth in battery production, and that growth is only possible with reliable, high-quality lithium. Simply put, without lithium, the global shift to clean transportation and sustainable energy cannot happen.

We currently have over 100 employees and consultants across areas including R&D, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Operations. Check out our Careers Opportunities Section for open roles.

Our Innovation Headquarters is located in Austin, TX, and we have our South American HQ in Santiago, Chile. Our registered Corporate Office is in San Juan, PR.

Our world class partners speak for themselves. We meaningfully engaged with a top American EV manufacturing partner General Motors (GM), a battery component and lithium production investment partner POSCO (who is JVed with GM), an oil & gas partner Eni, and top tier EPC Worley.

In addition, EnergyX has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) to support an advancement of domestic lithium innovation.

For our flagship Project Black Giant™ in Chile, Goldman Sachs serves as our financial advisor, and we have a Letter of Intent from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM Bank) to support project financing.

These partnerships strengthen EnergyX’s position as a leading force in developing the next generation of sustainable lithium production and supply chain infrastructure.

To date, EnergyX has raised over $150M+ from institutional and retail investors. The company also has a $450M commitment from Global Emerging Markets (GEM) upon a potential IPO and $690M Debt LOI from EXIM Bank.

EnergyX is a vertically integrated energy technology and resource company offering a complete lithium production solution from brine to battery. We own nearly 150,000 acres of lithium resources in Chile and the United States and control downstream refining to convert brine into battery grade lithium.

Our GET-LiT DLE portfolio is a suite of proprietary, brine agnostic technologies backed by over 120 patents, enabling highly efficient, sustainable, and cost effective production. By combining world class resources with advanced technology, EnergyX delivers an end to end solution that is shaping the future of global lithium production.

Check out our proprietary GET-LiT Technology and Projects to learn more.

EnergyX has developed a suite of breakthrough, direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies capable of high recovery rates from essentially every global brine. Our proprietary GET-LiT platform includes membranes, solvents, and adsorbents that can extract, recover, separate, and concentrate the lithium into battery-grade materials.

Our work with MOFs was an important step in the evolution of our technology. Science is always developing, and MOFs provided the initial framework that helped us advance to our current, robust GET-LiT portfolio. Today, GET-LiT is equipped to efficiently process virtually any brine type, benefiting from years of iterative learning and technological refinement.

Using our GET-LiT DLE technology as a standalone solution, lithium extraction can be completed within hours to days, depending on site-specific factors. While GET-LiT can complement conventional evaporation pond methods, it is significantly faster, as traditional ponds alone typically require around 18 months to produce the final product.

This ultimately depends on the type of brine GET-LiT is extracting lithium from. Compared to the current lithium evaporation ponds that use sunlight, which essentially has no energy cost, we will use more than that. However, as a relative cost to our overall OPEX, the energy costs are very modest.

The first option is to use local sources of energy, hopefully provided by sustainable means such as solar or wind energy. There are 5 main types of sustainable energy generation. Discover Them Here. 

The main sources of sustainable energy generation are solar, wind, and hydro power.  Once the energy has been created from these sources, it is typically distributed through the grid and used immediately.  Batteries come into play if we want to store this energy and use at a later time. Understand Renewable Energy Intermittency.

Lithium, in its pure form, is the lightest metal in the world, hence why its energy density is so high.  It is atomic #3 on the periodic table, and is the element that is used in the majority of the world’s rechargeable batteries. Learn More About Lithium.

Lithium is a natural resource that comes from the earth. Humans mine lithium from a few different sources. There are two main places are 1) From typical hard rock mining from a pit excavated in the ground, 2) From salt brines, which are very salty waters (>30%) which have high concentrations of lithium (think a salt lake). Most of the high lithium concentration salt brines are in South America in a place known as the lithium triangle. See Sustainability of Lithium Mining.

Lithium is the main, non-replaceable, material in rechargeable batteries.  Today the demand for batteries is growing exponentially in order to build electric vehicles, and to store renewable energy generated from solar and wind sources. Newer emerging technologies including data centers and AI are also driving further demand.

Yes. Lithium is a specialty chemical that can take a few different forms based on its chemical composition with other chemical ions.  There is technical grade lithium which is 99% pure, and battery grade lithium which is 99.5% pure. Lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃) and lithium hydroxide (LiOH) are the main two main forms of lithium that battery cell manufacturers purchase, with lithium hydroxide being a more pure form of lithium. The goal in refining lithium is to get it to be as pure (close to 100%) as possible.

The cost is based on which form of lithium you are purchasing. However the general price of all lithium has seen high volatility over the past few years because of its surging demand and then perceived over supply.  You will typically find the price of lithium somewhere between USD $10,000 – $20,000 per metric ton.

In its pure form, lithium is a very flammable material. Lithium can burst into flames in a number of scenarios as what happened with the Samsung phones circa 2017. This is caused when batteries are not made with the utmost safety precautions. Learn More On Lithium-Ion Battery Safety.

EnergyX is in the technology development and scaling stage right now. We must go through a series of in-field pilot plants and demonstration plants before commercial facilities can be deployed. EnergyX GET-LiT technology has been in the market since 2024. Our best estimate is that by 2027 EnergyX will be building its first commercial plant. Solid-state battery technology could be implemented shortly thereafter. See Sustainability 101.

In 2023, EnergyX acquired 100,000+ mining acres near Salar de Punta Negra basin (east margin of Domeyko Range), where the company is currently developing the world’s first commercial DLE facility, accompanied by a refinery plant near the Mejillones port, known as our Project Black Giant™. 

EnergyX has constructed a pilot plant with two lines in Austin, TX at our Innovation Headquarters. This will be followed by the market demonstration plant in the Smackover Region (H2 2025) with Project Lonestar™ Lithium, which is expected to process 50-100 tons of LCE per year. This pilot plant is operating as of 03 2024 with production capacity of 2-3 tpa.

With Project Black Giant™, EnergyX targets to produce 7,500 tpa LCE in Phase 1 and 52,500 tpa LCE with Phase 1 & 2. With Project Lonestar™ Lithium, we target to produce 12,500 tpa LCE in Phase 1 and 50,000 tpa LCE in Phase 1 & 2.

Our CAPEX and OPEX are both a fraction of conventional methods to produce lithium from both brines and hard rock methods. 

For Project Black Giant® a robust Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) was completed  in partnership with Montgomery & Associates, Geobiota, and Worley. The study confirms the economic viability of the project, marking a significant step toward commercial-scale lithium production, while also highlighting EnergyX’s industry-leading low CapEx and OpEx. 

In this study, EnergyX employed a disciplined, first-principles approach to estimating project costs:

• Capital Expenditures (CapEx): Estimated on a detailed equipment-by-equipment basis following FEL 2+ and Class 4 standards, benchmarked with actual vendor quotes. Estimated CapEx of $12,500/tpa for the 45,000 tpa Phase II expansion, places the project amongst the lowest in the industry for all lithium projects.
• Operating Expenditures (OpEx): Compiled from ground-up assessments of labor, reagents, energy, transportation, and general services. Estimated OpEx of $2,950/tonne of LCE for Phase II is significantly below the industry average for new lithium operations.

You can read the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) summary here for more information.