The US is racing towards lithium independence with ambitious mining projects

Several countries around the world are investing heavily in lithium mining to support industrial-scale production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries and storage. This has led to a huge increase in mining projects in lithium centers such as the Lithium Triangle in South America. It has also encouraged increased exploration in less productive areas as energy companies look to strengthen their supply chains through domestic lithium production. In the United States, Arkansas is quickly becoming a major lithium center, and other lithium-producing states are expected to emerge as a result of increased exploration.

The Biden administration has supported the development of the domestic lithium industry through favorable policies for mining activities that support the ecological transition and funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act (BIL). This is part of the Government’s drive to ensure a reliable supply of key minerals to support the deployment of renewable energy and clean technologies.

This was announced by the US Department of Energy (DoE) in March this year. financing of up to $2.26 billionunder the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program for construction of the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada. The mine is expected to come online later this decade and will supply lithium to General Motors (GM). Lithium Americas will mine approximately 40,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate annually at Thacker Pass, which could power up to 800,000 electric vehicles. Ultimately, it will increase to approximately 80,000 tons per year. GM invested additional funds $650 million in the project.

Last November, Exxon Mobil announced plans to begin producing lithium in the U.S. in 2027. It will operate in Arkansas, using conventional oil and gas drilling methods to access lithium deposits. Exxon partners with Tetra Technologies for its lithium business under the Mobil Lithium brand. They were awarded jointly to American Battery Technology Company, Applied Materials and Cirba Solutions $2.8 billion in DoE funding for 21 new, modernized and expanded commercial-scale lithium processing and battery recycling plants.

Albemarle, a major lithium producer, continues to produce lithium in North Carolina. Earlier this year, it announced plans to reopen its resource-rich Kings Mountain lithium mine in the state by the end of 2026, with support $150 million in DoE funding. However, it was met with a fierce reaction from environmentalists and indigenous groups who wanted to block the development, which led to delays. Albemarle plans to increase its domestic lithium production. The company currently operates the Silver Peak mine in Nevada, California the first mine producing lithium in North America.

Recent discoveries suggest that the United States may be well on its way to becoming lithium independent. Last September, a group of scientists funded by Lithium Americas Corporation reported that the McDermitt Caldera, a volcanic crater on the border of Nevada and Oregon, contains 20 to 40 million metric tons of lithium deposits, almost twice as much as in Bolivia, which is part of lithium triangle. In December, the Department of Energy announced that it had confirmed the existence of another large lithium deposit at the bottom of the Salton Sea in California. She said there was about 3,400 kilotons of lithium, enough for more than 375 million electric vehicle batteries. This is significantly higher than the 14 million metric tons previously calculated by the U.S. Geological Survey.

While recent lithium discoveries in the U.S. are significant, the country still has limited capacity to mine, refine and produce lithium for domestic needs. The world’s main lithium producers are currently Australia, Chile, China, Argentina, Brazil, Zimbabwe, the USA and Portugal. The United States is the only one of these countries to have experienced this decrease in lithium production over the last decade. It also has the lowest lithium production relative to the size of these countries’ reserves.

However, they do exist high hopes for the future of US-produced lithium from Arkansas emerges as a major center for the critical mineral. Several large companies, including companies such as ExxonMobil, Albemarle and Standard Lithium, have invested in mining operations in Arkansas. Recent exploration activities indicate that the state’s lithium resources are of high grade, which should make mining easier.

The US invests heavily in development direct lithium extraction (DLE), in order to increase their production potential. DLE technologies can extract up to 90 percent of lithium from brine, which is significantly higher than conventional pond extraction rates of around 50 percent. They can also extract the mineral in days rather than months, potentially making it much cheaper and faster to produce. However, DLE has not yet been proven to work on a large scale, which means the United States must further develop the technology or implement conventional production techniques on a larger scale to increase its lithium production capacity.

Written by Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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