Stardust Power, a lithium refiner supplying the EV sector, is going to build the US’s largest battery-grade lithium refinery in Oklahoma.

The refinery will be in Southside Industrial Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma, southeast of Tulsa, and is expected to be capable of producing up to 50,000 metric tonnes of battery-grade lithium annually.

Connecticut-based Stardust Power said it selected Muskogee because of the state’s central US location for delivery and shipment. Muskogee also has a skilled workforce trained in oil and gas engineering.

It will use Port Muskogee on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System to ship lithium brine water to the refinery, where it will derive the lithium, and then use the same inland waterway system to ship battery-grade lithium out.

Roshan Pujari, founder and CEO of Stardust Power, said, “Currently there is no large-scale refinery for battery-grade lithium in the United States… When fully operational, our new lithium refinery will both speed America’s energy transition and boost Oklahoma’s local economy…”

Stardust Power’s refinery is expected to be eligible to receive up to $257 million in state and federal economic incentives for the facility’s buildout. The company currently expects to break ground in the first half of 2024.

In November, Stardust Power announced it was set to list on the Nasdaq through a SPAC deal with acquisition company Global Partner Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: GPAC).

In 2022, Oklahoma ranked third in the US for electricity generation from wind, which accounted for 93% of the state’s total renewable generation. But with five petroleum refineries, it’s also the country’s fifth-largest producer of marketed natural gas and the sixth-largest producer of crude oil.