On December 7, 2023, Frontier, an advance market commitment (AMC) that aims to accelerate the development of carbon removal technologies, announced its first enhanced weathering offtake agreements with Lithos Carbon, a San Francisco-based agricultural carbon removal company. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised Lithos in the transaction.

Lithos, which was founded in 2022, accelerates the natural ability of rocks to absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) by spreading superfine crushed basalt on farmlands and measuring the removal empirically in a process known as enhanced rock weathering. Frontier buyers will pay Lithos $57.1 million to permanently remove 154,240 tons of CO₂ between 2024 and 2028, with more than half of that amount expected to be delivered in the first two years. It is the largest purchase Frontier has facilitated and the largest enhanced rock weathering purchase to date.

As one of the most promising CO₂ removal (CDR) solutions currently in use, enhanced rock weathering offers a number of benefits, among which are its immediate scalability and long duration storage. The approach also provides a win-win for farmers, who can use enhanced weathering to generate both carbon credits and better crop yields thanks to the CO₂-enhanced soil.

The Wilson Sonsini team that represented Lithos in the transaction was led by Scott Zimmermann, Bryan King, Manja Sachet, Mike Occhiolini, Andrew Ralston, and Kristijonas Rastauskas.

For more information, please see Frontier's news release. Additional coverage can be found on Bloomberg, Fast Company, Wired, and Carbon Herald.