New Lithium Reserves In US Can Power 500 Billion Phones, Reveals Study

USGS projects demand for lithium to double by 2029.

Earlier this year the Trump administration launched Project Vault to stockpile over 50 critical minerals, backed by a $10 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank and an additional $2 billion in private capital, for a total budget of $12 billion.

The article notes Australia is the largest lithium producer and China is second, with China also dominant in refinement and consumption of the critical mineral.

"This research shows that the Appalachians contain enough lithium to help meet the nation's growing needs – a major contribution to US mineral security, at a time when global lithium demand is rising rapidly." He added, "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 reserves were discovered in pegmatites—large-grained rocks formed at roughly the same time as the Appalachians, over about 250 million years ago.

The USGS reports the Appalachian Mountains contain an estimated 2.3 million metric tons of undiscovered, economically recoverable lithium. About 1.43 million metric tons are in the Carolinas, with roughly 900,000 metric tons in the northern Appalachians. The study indicates these reserves could sustain 328 years of US lithium imports at last year's levels and could power 130 million electric vehicles, 1.6 million grid-scale batteries, 180 billion laptops, or 500 billion mobile phones.