U.S. lithium deposit could be world's largest, according to early estimates

The lithium deposit discovered on the border between Nevada and Oregon could be the largest in the world, according to a study. After the first analyses, experts estimate that McDermitt Caldera may contain between 20 and 40 million metric tons of the precious mineral, a basic element in the fabrication of batteries and for the electric vehicle market.

Data from the study, published Aug. 31 in Science Advances by volcanologists and geologists from Lithium Americas Corporation, GNS Science and Oregon State University, indicate that, after extrapolating across the entire caldera from publicly available drilling data from Lithium Americas Corp. and Jindalee Resources Ltd, we are looking at the most important deposit in the world.

Twice as much lithium as the largest deposit known so far

According to the paper, "Even if this estimation is high due to variations in sediment thickness and/or Li grade, the Li inventory contained in McDermitt caldera sediments would still be on par with, if not considerably larger than, the 10.2 MT of Li inventory estimated to be contained in brines beneath the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, previously considered the largest Li deposit on Earth."

Speaking to Chemistry World, Anouk Borst, a geologist at KU Leuven University and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, stressed that, "It could change the dynamics of lithium globally, in terms of price, security of supply and geopolitics." One of the main consequences would be that the United States, a country importer of lithium, and in large quantities, would no longer need to do so, as the expert put it: "If they can extract lithium with very low energy consumption, or in a process that does not consume much acid, then this can be economically very significant. The US would have its own supply of lithium and industries would be less scared about supply shortages."