On behalf of OTC Markets, we are very pleased you have joined us for our two-day OTCQB Virtual Investor Conference. The next presentation of the day is from LibertyStream Infrastructure Partners. Please note you may submit questions for the presenter at any time. You can view a company's availability for a one-on-one meeting by clicking Book a Meeting. At this point, I'm very pleased to welcome Bill McClain, Head of Investor Relations of LibertyStream Infrastructure Partners, which trades on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol VLTLF, and on the TSXV under the symbol LIB. Welcome back, Bill.
Thank you very much, Greg, and thank you to everyone who has tuned in to share some of their valuable time with us, even during a workday for some, I imagine. It is appreciated, your interest and support. I am Head of Investor Relations for LibertyStream, and some of you may not know the story, so we'll start from the top, but I will try to keep this brief and leave a lot of time for questions. Please submit if you have any. LibertyStream Infrastructure Partners. It's a mouthful. What does it really mean? It means that we don't build all of our infrastructure. We bolt on to one of the biggest industries in the world, which is the oil and gas industry, and process their waste product, produced water, turning it into critical minerals, the first of which being lithium carbonate.
There is a joke in the oil and gas industry that they don't have oil wells, they have water wells that produce a bit of oil, and that is true. Typically, the portion of water coming up in an oil well is greater than that of the oil itself, and all of that water contains minerals. In particular, as we're talking about the Permian Basin as our first focus, there is lithium in that water. This is what we mean by leveraging energy infrastructure into a critical minerals engine. I'm happy to update many of you who haven't been here with us for several months, or maybe even a year, that this is happening now. This is no longer a story. I need to tell you why it's going to work. I can point to the results.
We are in the Permian Basin, partnered with Select Water Solutions, a major midstreamer in the Permian Basin, processing millions of barrels of produced water a day. We are on site at one of their locations already producing lithium carbonate on site. We do the extraction on that location, and we do the refining into finished product on that location. We have delivered a one-ton sample to our first customer from that location. That customer has visited this site and verified that our operations are going to produce consistent product. This is what is important to many customers. Right now we are in the field taking the oilfield produced water and turning it into lithium carbonate. This slide is very busy. I would point out just the opportunity for growth that is ahead of us now that we've established operations.
The first facility that we're building right now is slated for 1,000 tons per year of production. There is a path to far greater than 10,000 tons of production just with identified locations to build similar facilities, and in fact, a path to greater than 100,000 tons of lithium carbonate production per year across the Permian Basin. Indeed, if we looked at all of the produced water in the Permian Basin, you're approaching 200,000 tons per annum of production potential, which is multiples larger than the current largest lithium chemicals producer in the entire world. This story and our operations are very simple and repeatable, and I don't mean to say that this was simple to develop or to get to the stage where it is.
We've been operating in the lab and then in the field for years prior to this culmination of operating in the field with commercial scale equipment and approaching commercial scale. What is repeatable about this process is we've broken it down into three major steps. There is pretreatment of this produced water. We have to get the iron and organics out. That step is handled by our partner, Select Water Solutions. They are, in fact, a recycler of produced water. Much of the water they handle is sold back to the oil and gas industry to be used for fracking. In order to do that, they need to remove the iron and organics from the water.
That just so synergistically happens to be exactly the first step that we need to take with that water before moving on to step two, which is extracting the lithium from that produced water. In the center picture here on this slide, you can see a replica or actually the instance of our lithium extraction equipment. This is what we're calling Freedom Launchpad. This carousel that you see there has 10 cylinders on it. This is a replica of the commercial equipment that is being installed. Instead of having 10 cylinders per carousel, there will be somewhere between 40 and 60 per carousel at a commercial installation, as well as multiple carousels. As you can see on the right picture, this is some of the lithium carbonate that we have produced on site.
This is inside the battery grade finishing refining system that we have on location at Select Water Solutions where we are producing samples or what we would call test batches then for customers to put into their production lines. Now, we take a step back and look at the lithium market or other lithium developers. The picture is very clear that the world very soon does not have enough lithium, and this is one of our key differentiators. From ordering the equipment to being operational and producing at 1,000 or more tons per year, the timeline is less than one year, 11 months. To put that into a different perspective, I'll note that our first set of commercial equipment begins arriving on site at the end of this month and then will be operational in the month of December.
The long lead is the ordering and delivery of the equipment. Once this equipment arrives on site, it is a quick bolt-on to the existing infrastructure. Other projects are anywhere from seven to more than 10 years to bring any new production online. As we scale, we can start to bring multiple facilities online in parallel, but we must walk before we run. We'll stay focused on this first facility and get it operational by the end of this first year. I should note that one of the reasons we're able to move this fast is because we are bolting on to the existing infrastructure in the oil and gas space. In the Permian Basin in particular, there is something like 8,000 miles of pipeline dedicated solely to moving produced water, not to moving the oil and gas, just the water.
With that infrastructure in place and this water already moving today in excess of 20 MM bpd , it is quick to bolt on to that infrastructure, extract the lithium and bring lithium production to America, of which there is virtually none today. We'll touch on some of these points again over the key differentiators. I think one of the main differentiators that focus on is we are doing this today. This isn't a story where we're telling you how this will work. We are showing you the end product. We are delivering that end product to customers and prospective customers. We will validate the timeline to deployment here as we move into the back of the year.
If you followed our progress, you know we gained access to select site just in the month of March and began producing lithium carbonate on site within 35 days. The embedded growth in this story is there and evident. There are thousands of locations, much like the one we're operating at today, that we can target to go and build lithium production facilities. We have receipts from our operating procedures to know what it costs. This is not an exercise in a spreadsheet or an estimate. We have seen our power bills, we have seen our reagent bills. We can estimate our cost of production per ton of lithium carbonate at $ 6,200, which puts us toward the bottom, in the bottom third of the cost curve for other producers. Again, we've been doing this for years in the field.
This isn't new. This isn't something that we're developing. This is something that we are commercializing right now. It is something that America needs with no production in the country. Part of the reason we've had such success is that we are still founder-led. It's not listed under Alex Wylie's title here, but he is the President, CEO, on the board of directors, and was a founder of this company. I will note that during the field development, when I first met Alex in the field in January of 2025, he was living in a trailer in the middle of the desert, working every day to get this technology to the scale that it needed to be and to be repeatable. We have various other expertise around this company. Tim Frost has come over from Albemarle. He was the head of sales for Albemarle across Americas and Europe.
We have our chief chemist, Huiyan Zheng, part of the development team of this technology and the ion exchange media and resin coatings that make this work. Various other capital partners. Jack Crancer was the executive director of investment banking at Texas Capital, who has financed many projects throughout the Permian Basin. He knows the right financiers, both equity-wise and debt-wise in this space. Across the board, a slew of other experience, including another Texas Capital veteran, Mike Bodino, who over his career has raised over CAD 50 billion. This is a trash-to-treasure story. We are turning what is typically a cost center into a revenue source for the oil and gas industry. Normally, the way this works is you have an upstreamer or a well operator.
They lift fluid from subsurface, and then they pass it off to an intermediary, be called a midstreamer, to transport the oil and gas downstream to a refiner or to dispose of this produced water. This is who we partner with, are the midstreamers. They are paid to take this water away and dispose of it properly. It is a liability to the upstreamer and the midstreamer alike, and they are paid to handle that liability and dispose of it. We can partner with them, build on top of their infrastructure, and dramatically increase their margins by paying them a royalty on a per ton of lithium carbonate sold.
This is very synergistic, and this is another way of monetizing vast amounts of infrastructure and assets that are already in place and already moving copious amounts of feedstock that we need to produce critical minerals. It was in February that we announced our first partnership with such a major midstreamer, Select Water Solutions, and that should be no surprise. Select has been a pioneer in the midstreaming space, a newer player moving faster, building and growing as we speak. They had also put out to their shareholder base that they intended to extract critical minerals from their produced water at some point last year. We have an agreement with them to have our first facility online by the end of this calendar year.
We need to build another facility with them by the end of June 2027, another by the end of the year in 2027, and two more units per year thereafter. That is the initial agreement with just one feedstock partner who moves a fraction of this produced water in the Permian Basin. Again, this is a low-cost, fast-to-deploy, and low-risk model in mineral production. Most other projects take billions of dollars and tens of years to come online. We come online in modular-sized units of 1,000- 5,000 tons per year of production capacity at a relatively low cost. We're talking $37 million to bring the first 1,000 tons of production online, and doing that in a matter of months, not years, and being able to do that in parallel as we move forward and get comfortable with the template of deployment.
Similarly, there is the customer side of the equation. It's not enough to just make product. You have to meet specifications and be able to sell to customers. This works out quite well for us with the relationships that Tim Frost has. There are large customers, would be your battery manufacturers, and they have a long qualification period. We're talking a couple of years. Whereas the more industrial players, folks who make glass, who make ceramics, who use the product in welding, are a much shorter qualification period, and typically, their offtake size is more right-sized for our production levels at this point in time. We'll note that the first customer that we have is in that ceramic space and requires 600 tons per year, a nice size to pair with our first 1,000-ton per annum production facility.
We have extra production, both from the Freedom Launchpad and the commercial facility, to continue delivering product to those battery customers, so that as we scale, when we hit scale, we're already qualified to sell into their pipeline. Again, another comparison at how low risk and low capital we are. Cheaper on the capital intensity, meaning the capital deployed per ton of lithium carbonate production brought online, as well as the timeline. Both shorter, and this means that you're not putting as much capital at risk as a financier, and you have a much quicker turnaround time to be earning return on the capital deployed. We'll speed through some of these slides, as I see lots of questions coming in that I would like to get to. We have been showing these results in the field now for a number of years.
It was, in fact, August of 2024 when we commenced field operations in the Permian Basin and have scaled multiple times over, procured partnerships with major water movers, and an actual end-use customer. This is not selling into a trader or into a further refiner. We are hitting the end quality product spec, and selling right to customers is a major validation step in our ability to produce critical minerals from this wastewater in the oil and gas industry. I'll note in the bottom right-hand corner of this slide that we are in negotiation with multiple other water moving partners, and I would say sometimes from their perspective, it makes sense to be second, to not take on the experiment. We're happy for those who did give us the opportunity to come out, but there are others waiting in the wings that see there are ways to monetize their assets.
We are also in talks with, this number is not quite right, but far more than five other parties in offtake agreements. In fact, just with ones with term sheets in front of them, this would account for greater than 10,000 tons per annum of demand. Speed through this slide, but this is a look at what a spec sheet for some customers might look like. lithium carbonate is not a fungible commodity like gold or silver. Each end user has their own commercial secret spec sheet of which impurities have to be below a certain level, and we have not hit a customer spec sheet yet that we could not meet. We are delivering samples to both battery grade and industrial-grade customers at this point in time. Quick note on the offtake agreement. As discussed, it is for 600 tons per annum. It is a multi-year contract.
It does include some fixed pricing mechanisms for the first two years. Those are in place in order to appease would-be lenders to get some debt financing and helping to expedite the rollout of these facilities and the capital expenditure required. I think we'll cross right to the right-hand side. Everyone wants to know where we're going in the long run. With greater than 20 million bbl of produced water a day, that is in excess of 185,000 tons of lithium carbonate production potential. By the way, this amount of feedstock is growing every year. By 2030, it's expected in the Permian Basin they will be producing 26 million-28 million bbl of water a day. Again, this is de-risked. We're already producing lithium carbonate on site. We have already paid our first royalty check showing our value to our partner, Select Water Solutions.
They have seen us at rapid pace deploying equipment at their site, bringing customers to visit, delivering product. This is a fast and rapid path to production and cash flow, and it is very synergistic with those partners that allow us to bolt onto their infrastructure. Here's a map of the water produced in the Permian Basin. We had an older one that showed a radius and how much water was produced in these regions. This is a very big basin. It's a three to three and a half hour drive from one side to the other, so very much capable of being managed by one oversight team. There are lots of endpoints here where this water is produced and then disposed of, where we can go bolt on and add to our production profile.
This is a picture right here with a flow sheet of what our operations look like today, save for where point number three is. This now has the automated Gen 6 system fully housed on there. There's a picture of that earlier in this slideshow, as well at the far end of these ponds where it says commercial deployment. That space is now cleared and leveled and ready for concrete because, again, commercial equipment begins arriving toward the end of this month, and we need to build and get this facility online by the end of the year. I will take a pause here. Thank you guys very much for listening. Mention that we did have some forward-looking statements, the standard disclaimer, and turn it over to questions, which I'm very happy to get to. Okay, first question. Very good question.
What are typical sample sizes battery producers are looking for? Have you had these initial discussions with these battery companies?" The answer is yes, and it depends per customer. The first customer required a one ton industrial trial to put through their production facilities. Other customers require 20 tons. Some not so much. At the moment, there are multiple hundred kilo samples out, and it does vary on a case-by-case basis as to what size of a sample. But it typically starts small in the number of grams to have this assayed, slightly larger samples, and then moving into the hundreds of kilos, if not tons, for the samples to be delivered. Very good question here. "Any details you can share regarding the financing for Freedom 1?" The answer is yes. We just did a CAD 20 million raise.
We also did a CAD 10 million and CAD 12.5 million raise in December and January preceding. Yes, we do need a fair amount of capital to continue to build these facilities. We are actively and have actively been working on debt financing. One of the key pieces to the puzzle of debt financing that we needed to get across the line was finalizing and making definitive that offtake agreement. This is a very creditworthy business that has agreed to a take-or-pay offtake agreement with us, something that is very much financeable. We are working tirelessly to file our S-1 with the SEC, aiming to get that across the line just this week and move toward a listing and capital raise alongside listing on the Nasdaq later this year. Stay tuned for news on that.
Next question is just about the Nasdaq listing. Yes, I do believe that we are still targeting a Nasdaq listing for this year. Regarding the share price requirements and some other deficiencies, all I can say is stay tuned. We intend to keep executing and hitting the milestones and giving you guys the news flow. We will see where that takes us. We have to focus on what we can control, which is executing the business plan, which largely means producing consistent product and delivering it to customers and signing up more feedstock partners. Question about government grants and timing. I can tell you this is very hard to predict. It is a focus of ours between the DOE, the DOD, and various state funding potential.
These timelines are out of our hand. Know that the team is working on every facet that you're asking about. We would love to have sources of non-dilutive, supportive, and more validated funding. I will note that we have already received substantial grant money from the state of North Dakota. More questions about financing. You guys are good. You're honing in on what are some of the biggest concerns for this company moving forward and gaining access to capital to grow fast is certainly one of those main concerns. Another question about debt financing and will that close before or after the first equipment arrives? I don't know the timeline on the debt financing. Everything that involves paperwork needs a countersignature. It can be out of our hands. We are aiming to get that across the line for sure before the first facility is built. Okay.
Question here. "Tesla has a factory in the Houston area. They will need lithium. How does this impact LibertyStream, or could there be a possible opportunity to supply?" Tesla needs a lot of lithium. Tesla also has their own lithium refinery for hydroxide in Texas, not carbonate. Tesla has also partnered, I believe, with LG to build some battery energy storage facilities or manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Arizona, if I remember correctly. In many of their cars, they will be using that hydroxide. The energy storage systems would be more prone to using carbonate as the lithium chemical of choice. "When do you expect to be in the Bakken?" Very good question. The team was actually just in North Dakota last week meeting with Terri Zimmerman of Badland Batteries and Packet Digital.
I believe our intentions are at first things first, to get that offtake agreement finalized and across the line. Second, to begin delivering from Texas and at some point next year, aiming to have a dedicated facility for them in North Dakota. Right now, Texas is the focus. It is such a large opportunity in such a small area to have the chance to become the biggest lithium chemicals producer in the world. However, North Dakota and the tie-ins to defense are very strategic and will get some focus from us. "Have the suppliers committed to the delivery schedule?" Yes, but I will note that sometimes a container shows up a week late or some things like this. It happens with deliveries.
Yes, the scheduled deliveries are end of August, end of September, and end of October, and the site should be ready to accept that commercial equipment when it arrives. "Could you walk everyone through when you could expect further feedstock as well as offtake agreements?" Offtake agreements, I can tell you these are underway right now. There are multiple in discussion. The first one getting across the line was very fast. I was told by Tim Frost to not expect that pace of execution again. There is bureaucracy and inertia in all major businesses. These are not things that are starting now that you'll have that wait period. There are multiple term sheets out for offtake agreements as we speak. How quickly they get countersigned or reach a final agreement, I cannot speak to with a definitive timeline.
These are things that we would like to get out ahead of any Nasdaq listing. Similarly, for new feedstock supply agreements, there are term sheets out negotiating the terms with other water handlers and what it would look like for us working with them. What are the typical sample size Oh, this is the one we started with. I should have started at the bottom. Let me move on. "Do I still see potential for future government support?" Absolutely. I think one of the main things that we need to focus on here with the government support is supplying those military and defense related suppliers.
Being the only production online meeting spec for their needs and the geopolitical risks in place and supply chain risks in place right now, I think we can garner some attention being the first to produce as well as some of these other features that we've talked about, the low amount of capital to bring incremental supply online and the pace at which supply can be brought online. Sorry, folks, the questions are jumping around on me. They keep coming in. I thank you so much for your interest. "From a technology standpoint, what do you see as LibertyStream's key moat today?" I would say our key moat is first of all, the ion exchange media resin coating and the process.
We went out to the field that chemistry that works and It still took 18 months of trial and error to nail down the process to make this work consistently over large volumes of water. We are keeping all of this technology proprietary, no patents, no publishing of anything that gives a hint as to how this works to anyone else to shorten their timeline to catch up. This is a race. We want to get steel in the ground in as many locations with as many partners as fast as possible and perceive we have a multi-year head start on anyone else who is trying to accomplish these same goals. Yeah, I believe I've answered that question. "What is the plan for the next refining unit?" Good question. 1,000 tons for this first one. Likely 1,000 tons for the second one.
We have eyed up some sites that have larger volume capacity that could be a 2,000 or 3,000 tons per annum production facility. Some of this things will depend on assets to capital and wow, I thank you all so much for all of these questions. They're fantastic. I will note that my phone number is on press releases. There is availability for one-on-one meetings for any of the questions I didn't get to. Thank you all so much again for your time.