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Imperial County, a sprawling desert region three hours southeast of Los Angeles that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, may not be what you would typically associate with Southern California. Home to ramshackle landmarks like Salvation Mountain, the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach, it’s the least populated county in the region with just 180,000 residents. But U.S. politicians are suddenly interested in this rural area for other reasons — namely, the wealth of lithium deep beneath its surface. The rare mineral used in batteries, now in particularly high demand with the rise of electric vehicles, could be enough to produce 375 million...

A lithium deposit discovered in a volcanic crater along the Nevada-Oregon border may hold up to 40 million metric tons of the rare metal — possibly the largest ever in the world, which could have a massive impact on the electric vehicle industry, according to a new study. The deposit hidden within the McDermitt Caldera is estimated to hold between 20 million and 40 million metric tons, which would be nearly double the current record of about 23 million metric tons found over the summer beneath a Bolivian salt flat, researchers reported in Science Advances. It would also greatly boost...

MAGNOLIA, Ark.—Slipping a handgun into his belt, the mayor of this small town hopped out of his 1995 Ford pickup and went in search of further evidence of a new energy boom. On the other side of freshly painted gate, Mayor Parnell Vann pointed out a squat blue spire of valves, bolts and pressure gauges attached to a long-dormant well—a telltale sign someone means to bring it back to life. On the thick-wooded back roads, crisscrossing fields where oil drillers gave up long ago, Vann found two more similar wells that day. These days, companies in the area aren’t looking...

10% for the big guy. The Biden administration is trying to ban real cars in favor of electric cars. It’s pushing unreliable wind and solar over reliable gas, oil and coal energy sources. All of that requires lots of lithium for energy storage and that makes us dependent on China. Meanwhile, the Biden administration also keeps shutting down efforts to mine lithium in America. Rover Metals Corp. is pleased to announce that it has it received its exploration drill permit from the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) to further exploration at its Let’s Go Lithium (“LGL”) project, NV, USA. The...

A small, quiet Arkansas town home to just 11,100 people is set to become the epicenter of the US 'white gold' boom. Magnolia, a blue-collar town in the state's southern region, was once a locus for oil but is on track to become a major producer of lithium, dubbed 'white gold' because of its soft, silvery-white look and the fact it powers most modern tech - from cellphones to laptops and electric cars. Exxon Mobil is planning to build one of the world’s largest lithium processing facilities near the town, with a capacity to produce 75,000 to 100,000 metric tons...

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) is planning to build one of the world's largest lithium processing facilities in Arkansas, with a capacity to produce 75K-100K metric tons/year of lithium, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.At that scale, the plant's production would equate to ~15% of all finished lithium produced globally last year.The giant project could be built in stages, with modular trains constructed together or in separate locations near its future lithium production sites in south Arkansas, according to the report.Other companies including Standard Lithium (SLI) and Tetra Technologies (TTI) are planning to build capacity in the area.The Smackover formation, a geologic...

Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce signed contracts with both China and Russia on Thursday to hand over control of the country’s two largest lithium deposits. Bolivia is home to some of the world’s largest known lithium resources. The contracts, which amount to $1.4 billion, will see state-owned Citic Guoan (of China’s CITIC Group) and Uranium One Group (of Russia’s Rosatom) work alongside the state-owned Bolivian Lithium Deposits (YLB) company to build two lithium carbonate processing plants.

In a remote region of Humboldt County, Nevada, the People of Red Mountain — Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock people from Fort McDermitt Tribe — are fighting against President Biden’s climate-change agenda by seeking to stop the extraction of lithium from the Thacker Pass Mine. This week, while Biden is campaigning in California touting his “climate credentials” with “the most aggressive climate action ever,” the People of Red Mountain are preparing for next week’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hearing on the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine as they attempt to stop the destruction of what they deem to be sacred land....

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric said on Thursday he would nationalize the country’s lithium industry, the world’s second largest producer of the metal essential in electric vehicle batteries, to boost its economy and protect its environment. The shock move in the country with the world’s largest lithium reserves would in time transfer control of Chile’s vast lithium operations from industry giants SQM and Albemarle to a separate state-owned company. It poses a fresh challenge to electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers scrambling to secure battery materials, as more countries look to protect their natural resources. Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits last year, and...

Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, controlled by the radical Islamist Taliban organisation, announced that Chinese company Gochin expressed its interest in investing $10 billion in Afghanistan’s lithium deposits, reported The Khaama Press. The Taliban arguably perceive Beijing as a potential source of economic investment following the US withdrawal. The acting minister for Mine and Petroleum, Shahabuddin Delawar, met with the Chinese company representatives in Kabul and said that the investment would create 120,000 direct and a million indirect jobs in the country, reported Khaama Press.

An inexpensive, environmentally friendly technique for lithium recycling could help ensure we have enough of the valuable metal to power the clean energy future — if it works as well in the real world as it does in the lab. The challenge: Transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) is a key part of combating climate change, and because lithium-ion batteries can store a lot of energy for their size, they’re our best option (so far) for powering them. The lithium needed to create those batteries is a finite resource, though, and mining it is environmentally destructive. Demand for lithium extends beyond...

OSAKA -- China is increasing its presence in the race to develop replacements for the lithium-ion battery, a Nikkei analysis shows. A country-by-country tally of patents related to post-lithium-ion batteries over the past 10 years shows China in the lead, accounting for more than half of all patents. The evaluation of patents for sodium-ion batteries, perhaps the biggest horse in the race, also shows China dominating Japan and the U.S., with Chinese companies expected to begin mass production of these batteries this year. Japan and the U.S. are also rushing to develop inexpensive alternatives to resource-constrained batteries for their decarbonization...

The discovery of Lithium reserves in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir would be a game changer for the country and for the Union Territory. It would lead to economic development for the people of J&K, officials said. “The discovery of 5.9 million tonnes of Lithium reserves in Reasi district is the most important discovery in recent times. It means that we are second in the world after Chile. It is a game changer for the country and J&K,” Secretary, Geology and Mining, Amit Sharma told this newspaper.The reserves have been discovered by Geological Survey of India (GSI) in...

Get ready! The mad dash for metals is here! Copper set to be most valuable opportunity in race to net zero Electric vehicles and wind turbines are main demand drivers. Rising demand for energy transition metals is essentially a given at this point. The real question is whether there will be enough supply. As things currently stand, lots of these metals, including copper and cobalt, are at risk of a shortfall in the coming decades unless current reserves can be supplemented with new geological discoveries and projects, and recycling of old material is stepped up. Many countries have known resources...

Jan. 31 (UPI) -- General Motors announced Tuesday it will make a $650 million equity investment into Lithium Americas to develop the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada to produce material needed for its electric vehicles. GM is touting the news as the largest-ever investment by a carmaker to produce domestic lithium to make EV batteries. Lithium Americas, which is based in Vancouver, Canada, said it believes there is enough lithium in the mine to produce batteries for 1 million EVs annually. As the market for electric cars grows, so have supply chain worries for lithium, the critical raw material needed...

A high-stakes, yearslong legal battle over a huge lithium mine planned in Nevada resumes Thursday with arguments from lawyers for the mining company, the U.S. agency that approved it and the rancher, tribes and conservationists fighting the project. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du has refused twice over the past year to grant temporary injunctions sought by tribal leaders who say the mine site is on sacred land where their ancestors were massacred by the U.S. Cavalry in 1865. But Thursday’s hearing in her Reno courtroom marks the first on the actual merits of the case and will set the legal...

So what does "American-made" mean to the Biden administration as it hands out huge chunks of "free" taxpayer cash for its "green" infrastructure schemes?As Donald Trump used to say: "Chiii-na."According to Alana Goodman at the Washington Free Beacon:President Joe Biden's Department of Energy is touting a grant to a lithium battery company as a move that would help herald the shift to green energy and ensure the United States is cultivating domestic sources of energy. It did not say, however, that the Texas company receiving the grant operates primarily from China and is under scrutiny from American financial regulators.The DOE...

Conceptual Rendering of the Plating and Stripping Reaction of Lithium Metal Electrode The high reactivity of lithium metal reduces the electrolyte at its surface, thereby leading to the degradation of lithium metal battery performance. To overcome this issue, scientists have developed functional electrolytes and electrolyte additives to form a surface protective film, which impacts the safety and efficiency of lithium batteries, but this was still not efficient to prevent certain severe side reactions. In the current study, researchers stabilized the lithium metal and electrolyte by designing the electrolyte to provide upshifted oxidation-reduction potential of lithium metal, thus succeeding in weakening...

SILVER PEAK, NV — On the edge of Western Nevada, hours from a major city and miles down private dirt roads, lies the United States' only lithium-producing plant...The scale of Silver Peak is hard to grasp from picturs. It spans 13,000 acres...Salty brine that contains lithium is pumped from between 300 and 2,000 feet underground to the surface. Then, over the course of 18 to 24 months, solar evaporation concentrates the lithium.

Conservationists are seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a tiny snail half the size of a pea that is known to exist only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine planned in Nevada along the Oregon state line. The Western Watersheds Project filed the listing petition last week with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Kings River pyrg, a springsnail found in 13 isolated springs around Thacker Pass 200 miles (321 kilometers) northeast of Reno. It says the biggest threat to the snail’s survival is disruption of groundwater flows as a result of the 370-foot-deep (113-meter), open-pit...