Compass Minerals Terminates Great Salt Lake Lithium Project, Reports $77M Loss

Posted February 12, 2024

Overland Park-based Compass Minerals International Inc. released its fiscal first-quarter results and announced it will terminate a lithium brine project at the Great Salt Lake.

The company determined it is no longer in the best interests of shareholders to continue the lithium brine project at its Ogden, Utah, according to a release.

“The environment surrounding our lithium project today is markedly different than the one that existed a couple of years ago when we started down this path,” president and CEO of Compass Minerals Edward Dowling Jr. said in the release. “The simple fact is that the regulatory risks have increased significantly around this project. When combined with other changes to the commercial landscape, it became clear that the risk-adjusted returns on this project are inadequate to justify the investment.”

As part of the termination, Chris Yandell, head of the lithium project, departed the company and the lithium development team was disbanded. The company recognized a total of approximately $77.3 million in expenses in the first quarter.

The project, if completed, would have seen the development of a facility working to extract lithium from the Great Salt Lake’s brine. Lithium is used for batteries for mobile devices, laptops, and electric vehicles.