Much of the world’s lithium comes from a handful of countries, including Chile where brine containing the metal is placed in huge ponds to dry. Photo Credit: John Moore/Getty Images
Environment USAIs This the World’s Largest Lithium Deposit?
The Western region of the United States could be home to the planet’s largest-known deposit of lithium, one of the fundamental ingredients needed to make rechargeable batteries and an invaluable technology for the planet’s shift to renewable energy.
“If you believe their back-of-the-envelope estimation, this is a very, very significant deposit of lithium,” explains Anouk Borst, a geologist at KU Leuven University and the Royal Museum for Central Africa. “It could change the dynamics of lithium globally, in terms of price, security of supply, and geopolitics.”
The unincorporated community of McDermitt straddles the Nevada-Oregon border, where an estimated 20 to 40 million metric tons of lithium is contained within the sediments of the caldera, a land portion around 45 kilometres long and 35 kilometres wide. Bolivia’s salt flats hold around 23 million tons of lithium, making it the official most extensive deposition in the world. However, should the estimate be correct, the McDermitt caldera could dethrone it. Global demand for lithium batteries could grow fivefold by 2030.
