Texas Breaks Ground on First Produced Water Lithium Project
Ground broke this week on the first produced water lithium extraction project in Texas. Select Water Solutions and Mariana Minerals hosted the ceremony in Joaquin, Texas, in Shelby County. The project marks the first time produced water from oil and gas operations will become a source of lithium, a key mineral for electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems.
Several state and local leaders joined the groundbreaking, including Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, State Representatives Trent Ashby and Daniel Alders, and Joaquin Mayor Jessie Griffith.
Commissioner Christian said, “It was an honor to join the Select and Mariana teams, along with Reps. Alders and Ashby, to launch Texas’s first produced water lithium refinery in Joaquin. This project combines Select’s water infrastructure with Mariana Minerals’ refining expertise to turn produced water into American-made lithium that strengthens our domestic energy agenda and critical minerals supply chain. East Texas has been an energy lifeline for Texas and the nation since the World Wars—fueling our victories and sustaining our economy for generations. This groundbreaking marks a new chapter in that proud legacy. Most importantly, it brings new opportunities to rural East Texas — helping keep families together with good jobs, strong schools, and renewed hope for the future.”
Facility Will Produce 3,000 Tons of Lithium a Year
The new lithium facility will produce up to 3,000 metric tons of high-purity lithium salts each year. It converts oil and gas waste streams into marketable lithium products. Select has operated this water network for more than a decade.
The facility sits at a strategic collection point within that network. It connects to more than 70,000 barrels per day of produced water at one site. Nearly double that volume is available for processing across the broader network. The design avoids new brine wells, utilities, or other infrastructure, reducing costs and environmental impact.
Select Water Solutions Sees Long-Term Growth
Select’s Chairman, President, and CEO John Schmitz said, “This project capitalizes on Select’s market-leading infrastructure networks while also monetizing the resource potential of the large captive produced water volumes within these networks. By layering lithium extraction onto our existing water network, we continue to extract incremental value from the assets we’ve already built. It’s exactly the type of multi-use infrastructure project that underpins our long-term growth and profitability goals. In addition to this project, which we believe could generate up to $5mm of annual cash flow for Select, we have characterized the produced water across our entire U.S. infrastructure network for its mineral and resource potential and believe there remains additional opportunities for margin contribution to our Water Infrastructure segment and consolidated company in the future.”
Construction Timeline and Economic Benefits
Site preparation started in July 2025. Construction will continue through December 2026, and commercial production is expected in early 2027.
Select will continue investing its growth capital in building infrastructure to handle large water volumes for oil and gas, municipal, industrial, and agricultural customers nationwide.
Turner Caldwell, CEO and Co-Founder of Mariana Minerals, said, “We’re excited to be partnering with Select on this pioneering project for the U.S. Investing in domestic lithium production is a key part of rebuilding America’s critical minerals base, and Mariana is committed to bringing GWh-scale lithium production capacity to the U.S. as quickly as possible. In parallel with unlocking commercial supply from the U.S.’s vast lithium resources contained in oil and gas produced water, this project represents a meaningful step forward in Mariana’s autonomous refining platform that extends across the critical minerals value chain. This project also demonstrates Mariana’s unique value proposition in the mineral extraction space as the first software-native developer and operator of critical minerals infrastructure, leveraging cutting-edge AI-based technologies and reinforcement learning to deliver cost and production efficiencies to the front lines.”
About 200 construction jobs will be created. Once operational, the facility will employ 50 technical and operational staff. The estimated annual economic impact is $40 million.
Construction begins in July 2026 and ends later that year. Operations will start in January 2027.
Environmental Standards and Monitoring
Select Water Solutions said the facility will use less than three acres of land. It will produce minimal noise and rely on local power with limited water use.
On-site staff will monitor the system 24/7 to ensure safety and compliance with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and Railroad Commission standards.