By Ernest Scheyder

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) -Arkansas faces stiff Chinese competition, sagging market prices and technological challenges as it vies to become the hub for U.S. lithium production, obstacles that state officials and industry executives said this week are surmountable.

The southern state, the birthplace of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, sits atop the Smackover, an underground geological formation stretching from Florida to Texas filled with salty brines containing more than 5 million metric tons of lithium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

That is enough lithium to make millions of electric vehicle batteries and other devices if the metal can be filtered using direct lithium extraction (DLE), something that has never before been done at commercial scale

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