Plugging Into Lithium: A Case for Where, How and Why the United States Should Develop Domestic Sources of Lithium to Diversify a Vulnerable Supply Chain

Abstract

Batteries, specifically lithium-ion batteries, will play a central role in the United States’ low-carbon energy transition. Lithium is a critical resource for battery production, and the lithium supply chain is highly concentrated in a few countries, namely Chile, Argentina, Australia, and China, making it vulnerable to disruptions. China specifically has near-monopolistic control of most aspects of the lithium-ion battery supply chain, with upwards of 80% ownership or control over the upstream, midstream and downstream aspects of the chain. Due to an often adversarial relationship with China, the United States is, therefore, precariously dependent on China for its low-carbon energy future. With the outsized role lithium will play in the shift toward renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs), it is imperative the United States diversify the supply chain by developing its own mineral sources and battery production capacity – something it is not currently doing. The literature on how, where, and why the US should go about developing raw sources of lithium (the upstream part of the process) makes clear the following. There are expected to be over 200 million EVs in the US by 2050 as well as 4,500 gigawatt-hours of utility-scale battery storage on the US grid. Lithium, with its unique chemical properties, is a key element in the lithium-ion battery which will very likely be the battery of choice for the upcoming growth of the industry. Raw lithium can be sourced from brines and hard minerals, both of which the United States has large quantities of but has not developed. Promising deposits of lithium exist as clay in Nevada, pegmatite (hard rock minerals) in North Carolina, and in oilfield brines in Arkansas. From clay and hard rock, open-pit mines supply ore that is leached with sulfuric acid before further processing. From oilfield brines, technology is being tested that can adsorb the Lithium from the brine. Estimates indicate the United States could produce over 100,000 tons of battery-grade lithium per year from these three locations. For reference, the entire world produced 80,000 tons in 2020. Initiating new mines, however, requires an extensive permitting process that can take an average of 7 years. Environmental Impact Statements and Mine Plan of Operations take federal agencies, hindered with limited resources and manpower, the longest to approve. Private and government entities in the United States need to begin recovering lithium from domestic sources now in order to begin securing control of a critical supply chain. This thesis consolidates the relevant information and identifies feasible actions for both industry and government to move forward with new lithium production in the United States.