A “chicken litter” bay near an oven and vents where the process of turning poultry waste into pellets for use as fertilizer—and, perhaps, renewable energy—begins at A&E Pellet Mills, a newly built plant between Lewisville and Stamps, Ark., on Sept. 24, 2025. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times
STAMPS, Ark.—Global corporations are flocking to southwest Arkansas to invest millions in plants that will extract dissolved lithium from an ancient saltwater sea trapped under the Smackover Formation, a bounty that could generate billions, maybe trillions, of dollars in profits.
The “white gold rush” for the critical mineral essential in manufacturing lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that power modern electronics will create thousands of construction jobs in the coming years, and hundreds of full-time positions in the coming decades across Arklatex—southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and east Texas.
