“The United States Geological Survey recently estimated that there are over 2 million metric tons of undiscovered, economically recoverable lithium in the Appalachian Mountains, enough to supply the country for centuries at current levels of consumption,” reports The Doomslayer.
The USGS explains:
The southern Appalachians hold an estimated 1.43 million metric tons of lithium oxide, concentrated in the Carolinas, and the northern Appalachians hold an estimated 900,000 metric tons, concentrated in Maine and New Hampshire, according to estimates in a new USGS scientific paper published in Natural Resources Research. The lithium is present in pegmatites, large-grained rocks similar to granite.
‘This research shows that the Appalachians contain enough lithium to help meet the nation’s growing needs – a major contribution to U.S. mineral security, at a time when global lithium demand is rising rapidly,” said USGS Director Ned Mamula. “USGS mineral science is the leading edge in the effort to restore America’s mineral independence by mapping our nation’s mineral resources. Everything else follows on the science: permitting reform and other policy changes to support investment in clean, responsible mining to 21st century standards, and mining workforce training for new American jobs. The United States was the dominant world producer of lithium three decades ago, and this research highlights the abundant potential to reclaim our mineral independence.”
The United States had one sole producer of lithium and relied on imports for more than half the lithium used last year, factors that contributed to its inclusion on the 2025 List of Critical Minerals published by the USGS. Lithium is used in the lithium-ion batteries that power computers, military equipment, vehicles, phones, electric tools, and energy-grid storage, as well as in aerospace alloys. Additional lithium is imported into the United States every year inside finished products made elsewhere and containing lithium-ion batteries. While Australia is the world’s largest producer of lithium, China is second, and accounts for the majority of world lithium refining and consumption.
The USGS projects that world production capacity for lithium will double by 2029, driven by increasing demand. Lithium supply security has become a priority for technology companies.
Tesla is building the largest lithium refinery in the United States.
Lithium supplements may help with Alzheimer’s disease.
Massive lithium production is planned at the Great Salt Lake, using a new technique.
Lithium is needed for electric car batteries, and other things on the green agenda. Yet green activists have blocked lithium mining in other places in America like Maine. In the past, the world’s richest known lithium deposit was in the woods of western Maine, worth perhaps $1.5 billion, but Maine’s greens made it impossible to mine it, reported Time Magazine.
A new lithium mine near the border of Nevada and California may soon produce up to 40,000 tons of lithium annually, reducing America’s reliance on China for this critical mineral.
Lithium-fee sodium batteries are now being produced in the U.S.
