Permian's Lithium Play Turns Wastewater Into Gold

Select Water and LibertyStream aim to extract lithium from roughly 20 million barrels per day of Permian brine

16 Feb 2026

Each day the Permian Basin produces about 20m barrels of something few drillers once wanted: brine. This salty water, brought up alongside oil and gas, has long been a costly nuisance. Now two firms think it may contain something far more valuable.

Select Water Solutions has joined with LibertyStream Infrastructure Partners to extract battery-grade lithium from produced water in West Texas. The plan is to install lithium carbonate units at existing water treatment sites, with a first commercial plant targeted for late 2026. If it works, wastewater may become a modest mineral stream.

The logic is simple. Although some produced water is recycled for hydraulic fracturing, much is injected into disposal wells. That practice is expensive and faces rising scrutiny because of its link to induced earthquakes. Removing lithium before reuse or disposal would not only trim waste but also create a new source of revenue. A liability could become an asset.

Infrastructure is the pair’s main advantage. Select already operates a wide network of pipelines and treatment facilities across the basin. By colocating lithium extraction within that footprint, the companies hope to avoid the heavy capital costs and long timelines typical of standalone mining projects.

The timing is favourable. Demand for lithium is rising as electric vehicle production expands and grid scale storage grows. American policymakers are keen to secure domestic supplies of critical minerals and to reduce reliance on imports. Oilfield brines offer a potential source with far less surface disruption than hard rock mining.

Yet optimism should be tempered. Lithium concentrations in Permian brines are generally lower than in South America’s salars or Australia’s mines. Commercial scale extraction must prove reliable and cost effective. The planned 1,000 tonne per year facility will serve as a test of both chemistry and economics, at a time when lithium prices have been volatile.

If the experiment succeeds, the implications could spread. Water midstream operators might evolve from service providers into diversified resource firms, earning income from minerals as well as hydrocarbons. In the Permian, even waste is being reconsidered. Whether it can truly be turned into battery metal depends less on ambition than on margins.