Compass Minerals announced that, until it has clarity on the evolving regulatory climate in Utah, it will be suspending indefinitely any further investment in its planned lithium project. Compass Minerals' Ogden facility has operated responsibly on the Great Salt Lake for over half a century. The company's Ogden operation currently produces three essential mineral salts--sulfate of potash, sodium chloride and magnesium chloride--and provides approximately 370 local jobs.

It is anticipated that the lithium project would create in excess of an additional 100 jobs in the area. Compass Minerals is an engaged community partner and active lakeholder, committed to the shared goal of protecting the long-term health and sustainability of the Great Salt Lake. As previously announced, Compass Minerals is pursuing the sustainable development of an approximately 2.4 mMT lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) resource on the Great Salt Lake to help enable the critical formation and expansion of an advanced battery supply chain in North America.

Utilizing synergies with its existing Ogden production assets, lithium chloride would be the fourth mineral salt harvested from the same unit of brine already being processed, minimizing environmental impact with no incremental brine draw required from the Great Salt Lake. The March 2023 passage by the Utah State Legislature of House Bill 513 (H.B. 513, Great Salt Lake Amendments), and the subsequent regulatory rulemaking process it authorized with regard to lithium production on the Great Salt Lake, has introduced a significant amount of uncertainty regarding the regulatory environment in which the company's lithium program would be operating, as well as the timing of when that investment could proceed. Since the inception of H.B. 513, Compass Minerals has actively engaged with the State of Utah in a collaborative attempt to ensure the provisions of the bill, now statute, were implemented in a way that would not slow or halt the progress the company has made to date in pursuing the development of a sustainable lithium salt resource to service the North American advanced battery market.

The proposed rule published in mid-October by the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands (FFSL) introduces new obstacles to lithium salt production on the Great Salt Lake that have slowed progress and will require resolution prior to Compass Minerals proceeding further. As a result, Compass Minerals will be indefinitely suspending any further investment in its lithium project in Utah beyond certain already committed items associated with the early stages of construction of its commercial scale demonstration unit. The company will temporarily redeploy lithium-related personnel where appropriate.

Compass Minerals will also leverage this period of time during project suspension to consider potential partners at the project level with an aim of reducing its share of capital costs and lowering execution risk in the event that the project was restarted.