EnergyX secures $225M investment to advance Black Giant lithium project in Chile

Energy Exploration Technologies (EnergyX), announced Monday a $225 million investment from Italian energy company Eni SpA for a minority stake in the Black Giant lithium project in Antofagasta, Chile.

Black Giant has planned capacity to produce up to 52,500 metric tons of lithium carbonate per year across the first two phases, and the potential to expand further through additional development phases, EnergyX said.

Under the deal, Eni will receive rights up to approximately 25% of future lithium production from the project. EnergyX said it has also secured further offtake agreements supporting future production from the project, reinforcing long term demand visibility and supply chain integration.

While the total project capital expenditure is estimated just below $1 billion, including financing costs, once the first two phases are fully operational, project Black Giant is expected to generate approximately $1.3 billion in annual gross revenue based on current lithium prices of $25,000 as of May 2026, the company said.

Eni’s new investment builds on their corporate venture capital arm Eni Next’s participation in EnergyX’s $50 million Series B financing from 2022, and expands the partnership, securing the funding required to advance project Black Giant through full commercial development.

Eni will support the project through technical collaboration and upstream development expertise, leveraging its global energy infrastructure capabilities, subsurface engineering teams, and operational experience to help accelerate development timelines and commercialization efforts.

The transaction follows two years of development work after EnergyX acquired the 100,000+ acres of lithium mining tenements near Salar de Punta Negra in the Antofagasta Region of Northern Chile in 2023.

Since then, the firm has completed an upstream resource report estimating the in-situ lithium at 9.8 million tons, delineated from 22 exploration wells; an updated engineering and pre-feasibility study to complete the design, scale, economics, and commercial viability of the project; nearly 10,000 hours of pilot plant operations and testing work on the real world lithium concentrated brines and commissioned a nearly operational 170 tpa demonstration plant, it said.

This project development work confirmed EnergyX’s proprietary GET Lit direct lithium extraction and refining platform delivers the projected industry lowest capex and opex among comparable large scale lithium development projects, the company said.

“After years of intense work and focus, this vote of confidence from Eni not only validates the impact of project Black Giant, but also the strength of EnergyX’s GET-Lit DLE technology platform,” EnergyX CEO Teague Egan said in a news release.

“We believe this project will become the world’s largest DLE operation, as well as fundamentally transform the lithium industry by showcasing the viability of breakthrough DLE technology on commercial scale.”

The news comes a month after the privately held company partnered with Wildcat Discovery Technologies to build ‘battery mecca’ in Texas, two months after announcing a planned Utah venture with Compass Minerals and four months after launching the first US direct lithium extraction plant in Texas.