America's energy future is lithium.
This is according to private energy technology company EnergyX, which is out to fundamentally change the way we power our world, and it wants our money to do so.
What is EnergyX?
Our story starts in the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat, in the mountains of Bolivia.
It also happens to be the site of the world's single largest lithium reserve. “The Lithium Triangle”, as it's known, between Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, a 400,000 square kilometer area where as much as 60% of the entire world’s lithium is located.
We have reviewed private Regulation-A offerings before, including Immersed's Convertible Note Offering and Med-X's Private Share Sale, among others.
Getting back to our Bolivian tale, this where EnergyX was first conceived in 2018 by founder Teague Egan who was on a ‘sabbatical, which is a fancy way of saying unemployed, exploring South America.
According to his own website, teague.co, Egan is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist who plans to live to a “healthy 150 years old.”
His vision for EnergyX may be even more audacious.
It isn't simply to explore, mine, and develop the lithium found buried inside “the triangle,” that would be too last century, but rather to reduce the cost and make the entire process of discovery and exploration easier through proprietary direct lithium extraction technology (DLE).
EnergyX calls it GET-Lit and it purports to improve the entire lithium supply chain, from “brine to battery” in three key ways.
Adsorbtion
This is the most sought-after aspect of DLE technology because adsorbents are the foundation of extracting lithium ions directly from brines.
In it's investor deck, EnergyX claims to have developed sorbents with three times higher capacity at 1/3 the cost of anything else currently available.
Extraction
Solvent extraction is the most common tech in the mining and metals industry.
It separates compounds or metal complexes, extracting the useless stuff and recovering the valuable stuff.
EnergyX's extraction method separates, purifies, and concentrates brines to generate lithium content at 60,000 parts per million (ppm).
Membranes
The company has developed specialized lithium membranes to directly convert chloride and hydroxide to lithium metal.
That got a bit technical, but at the end of the day EnergyX's GET-Lit technology is supposed to be better, faster, and cheaper than existing alternatives.
However, this is all based on initial pilot tests. Per the Regulation-A filing:
Pilot plants in Chile and Texas have demonstrated lithium recoveries of 96% or greater, with substantially lower inputs and minimal water consumption as compared to conventional evaporation ponds
EnergyX is now hoping to transition to demonstration and commercialization of the tech, and it is tapping the private capital market to do so.
A Vertically Integrated Development Stage Company
All in, the energy technology company has raised more than $180 million in equity funding to date and it is hoping to raise another $28 million with its current offering.
The breakdown looks like this:
Aside from AI companies that train and refine large language models (LLMs) at great hardware and software expense, this is a LOT of capital to develop any technology.
We subsequently learn the large capital needs are primarily due to EnergyX's ambition to become a “top-tier, vertically integrated lithium and other critical minerals supplier.”
This entails owning lithium mines, using its GET-Lit technology platform to optimize brine extraction, and then distributing it to the global market.
Indeed, EnergyX has used a good portion of its previous funding rounds to either outright aquire or buy up lease options on no less than four separate mining projects across various jurisdictions:
All of a sudden the investment case has taken a sharp left turn and not in a good action movie type of way, but from a high-margin, asset-light business model to a more convoluted, capital-intensive one.
It could get a lot more complicated too:
Our business may pursue additional, complementary activities in addition to our current operations involving lithium mining and extraction technologies, we plan to explore opportunities across the value chain for critical minerals, including sourcing, processing, refining, conversion, separation, enrichment, recycling, and related technology development
It's quite a lot to take in, so what does EnergyX offer to entice us to step up and part with our hard-earned dollars?
The Private Share Offering
2,158,865 shares of common stock at $13 each for 1.8% of the business.
These numbers mean little without some context…
EnergyX has exactly 117,240,487 common shares outstanding, with three types of preferred stock also issued, including a type called Founders 1 Preferred Stock which effectively gives Teague Egan voting control, bringing the total number of outstanding shares to about 199.1 million.
At the offering price, it gives EnergyX a $2.58 billion valuation.
Is this good, middle of the road, or a total abomination?
Is EnergyX A Good Investment?
Anytime financials are the last thing listed in an offering circular, it's not a good sign.
This remains true when it comes to EnergyX.
Per the Form 1-A, the balance sheet isn't too bad, nearly $8.6 million in cash against no debt and $4.1 million in long-term operating lease and deferred purchase liabilities.
The single largest assets are intangible, in the form of 120 issued and pending technology patents, and property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) at $42.1 million and $35.8 million, respectively. Bringing total shareholder equity to nearly $86 million. For a development stage company, it's surprisingly respectable.
However, the income statement is where the valuation truly crumbles.
Since inception, EnergyX has run up $73 million in losses, including nearly $21 million in fiscal year 2025, on only $1.4 million in revenue, a record high.
So, that's no commercial product, no income or cashflow, and minimal revenue of $1.4 million for $2.5 billion!
As the Spongebob meme goes, I'm gonna head out.
In all seriousness, the lithium market is growing at about 20% annually due to the increasing demand for next-gen battery solutions from power hogs such as data centers, electric vehicles, and energy grids themselves, which are struggling to keep up. A dynamic DLE solution that delivers production savings and more efficient extraction, would be adopted by a large segment of the mining industry.
But EnergyX's valuation isn't serious and merely an aggressive over-speculation on future growth that almost puts SpaceX to shame.
I would pay no more than 2x book value for shares or $172 million, which I feel would be generous.
EnergyX is not a good investment at it's current offering price.
Quick Recap & Conclusion
- EnergyX, a private critical minerals and energy-technology company, is out to fundamentally change the way we power our world, and it is raising a new round of funding to do so.
- It is applying a vertically integrated strategy of owning producing lithium mines, proprietary, patent-protected lithium extraction technology that is it's core product, and supply capabilities.
- To fully commercialize it's Direct Lithium Extraction Technology (DLE) called GET-Lit and put all the pieces of its plan in place, EnergyX is conducting a Reg-A equity offering at $13 per share to raise $28 million in fresh operating capital.
- Based on 199.1 million in total outstanding shares, that gives EnergyX a whopping valuation of $2.5 billion.
- This is for a private business with no commercial product, only technology test pilots, no income or cashflow, and minimal annual revenue of $1.4 million. EnergyX is not a good investment at its latest offering price.
Is EnergyX's GET-Lit lithium extraction technology worthy of large-scale commercial deployment? Tell us what you think in the comments.