March 26 (Reuters) - EnergyX, a startup backed by

General Motors ( GM ), said on Thursday it has commissioned a

lithium production facility at its project Lonestar, located in

the Smackover formation in Texas.

Lithium demand has been surging globally, driven by the role

of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, portable

electronics and increased adoption of renewable energy storage

solutions.

* The Lonestar demonstration plant is operational and will

produce roughly 250 metric tons per year of battery-grade

lithium carbonate equivalent, the company said.

* EnergyX expects production to scale to more than 100,000

metric tons per year.

* Lithium refining remains a bottleneck in the U.S., with

China controlling about 70%-75% of global lithium chemical

conversion capacity.

* The reliance on China for battery-grade lithium chemicals

has kept margins low for domestic producers, undermining the

economics of most non-Chinese projects, EnergyX said.

* The company said the facility enables it to further

optimize system design, validate process economics, and provide

5-25 ton samples of battery grade lithium to customers for

qualification.

* The Smackover formation is an underground geological

formation stretching from Florida to Texas and could contain

more than 4 million metric tons of lithium.

* Companies aiming to extract lithium from the Smackover

will need to use direct lithium extraction, a process that has

yet to be widely proven at a commercial scale, with most

projects still in pilot or early deployment.

(Reporting by Dharna Bafna in Bengaluru)