Volcanologists have discovered what they believe to be the world’s largest deposit of lithium in the western United States. A big deal for the U.S., the material could help power the EV industry for decades.
The site is located on the McDermitt caldera, which runs along the border between Nevada and Oregon, the lithium is thought to have been created following the explosion of a super volcano 16 million years ago. Although a final tally must still be confirmed, estimates suggest that it could contain as much as 120 million tons of lithium, which would be a boon for the EV industry.
That would mean that the caldera contains around 12-times more of the mineral than the salt flats in Bolivia, which were previously considered the largest deposit on earth, per The Independent. Better still, according to the researchers behind the discovery, there isn’t just a lot of lithium at the site, it’s also a concentrated supply.
Read: GM To Invest $650 Million In A U.S. Lithium Mine To Secure Battery Materials
“Volcano sedimentary lithium resources […] tend to be shallow, high-tonnage deposits with low waste:ore strip ratios,” write the researchers in an article published by the journal Science Advances. “Illite-bearing Miocene lacustrine sediments within the southern portion of McDermitt caldera (USA) at Thacker Pass contain extremely high lithium grades.”
That could be good news for the U.S., which did not previously have access to a major lithium deposit before this discovery. The government will have to bear in mind that two tribes on the Nevada side of the caldera claim that a mine would be built atop sacred land, while other groups are protesting the potential environmental impacts of such activities.
However, if it can work with stakeholders, geologists at Americas Corporation believe mining could begin in 2026. If that happens, it could help meet the demand of the future demand of electric vehicle industry, which is expected to increase eight-fold by 2040.
