In a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey, geologists have announced that the Appalachian Mountains could be hiding a sprawling multibillion-dollar cache of lithium that could last the U.S. hundreds of years.
“This research shows that the Appalachians contain enough lithium to help meet the nation’s growing needs,” declared US Geological Survey Director Ned Mamula in a statement.
According to a map by the USGS, this East Coast mountain range houses around 2.5 metric tons of this battery precursor*, most of which is concentrated in the Carolinas, Maine and New Hampshire. Total value: around $64.4B dollars. [*A precursor is a substance from which another is formed.]
Per Bloomberg, the US imports nearly half of its consumption of lithium. [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].
With this recent mineral motherlode, USGS officials estimate that the 2.3 million metric tons of lithium oxide in the Appalachian region would be enough lithium for batteries in:
- 1.6 million grid-scale batteries large enough to stabilize an electric grid
- 130 million electric vehicles
- 180 billion laptops, or a 1,000 year-supply of laptops for the world (at 2025 levels)
- 500 billion cellphones, or 60 cellphones for each person on earth
All told, [the deposits could be] enough to replace 328 years of imports at last year’s level, providing “a major contribution to US mineral security, at a time when global lithium demand is rising rapidly,” said Mamula.
