The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is calling a newly identified lithium deposit in the Appalachian Mountains — concentrated in the Carolinas — a “great find,” saying it could help the United States reduce its reliance on China for critical minerals essential to modern technology. [some emphasis, links added]
Federal officials made the announcement last week, just as a major North Carolina lithium mine west of Charlotte in Kings Mountain cleared a key permit weeks ago.
The Kings Mountain lithium mine in Cleveland County was dormant since the 1980s until the U.S. Department of Defense in 2023 agreed to purchase $90 million in lithium from the 800-acre Albemarle site off Interstate 85, about 35 miles west of Charlotte.
That guaranteed purchase allowed Albemarle to move forward with spending money to restart the lithium mining effort, reducing U.S. dependence on China.
“You hear a lot about unleashing energy dominance. We also care about batteries and magnets and chips and semiconductors,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said during a NewsNation appearance last weekend. “When we have our own resources within our own country, we should not only be extracting them here — we should be processing them here.”
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said last week that researchers have identified an estimated 2.3 million metric tons of recoverable lithium, largely concentrated in the southern Appalachians in the Carolinas, with additional deposits in the northern Appalachians in Maine and New Hampshire.
The lithium is estimated to be worth more than $64 billion.
Meanwhile, the Kings Mountain Lithium project completed federal permitting in late March to resume open-pit mining. Albemarle also plans to expand the footprint of the North Carolina site — one of the few known hard-rock lithium deposits in the U.S.
The North Carolina mine should extract about 420,000 tons yearly of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate, the company has said.
“By completing the federal permitting process for the Kings Mountain Lithium Mine Project, the Permitting Council has demonstrated how smart, targeted policy can make government a true partner to industry by delivering more predictable timelines and increasing transparency. I am grateful to the Trump administration, the Permitting Council, and Albemarle for unlocking the potential of lithium here in North Carolina,” Senator Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said regarding the permit.
Also in March, the Kings Mountain mine project hit a major milestone with the successful “dewatering” of the site’s open pit, which had collected rainwater since the 1990s, Albemarle company said.
Reducing U.S. dependence on China and other foreign suppliers for critical minerals and rare earth elements has been a priority of the Trump administration amid rising geopolitical tensions.
If fully extracted and processed, the Appalachian region’s lithium could replace roughly 328 years of U.S. imports at last year’s consumption levels, according to federal officials.
The mineral is contained in pegmatites, coarse-grained rocks similar to granite.
Top image of a conceptual illustration of the Kings Mountain mine and refinery once finished. Via Albemarle Corporation/YouTube screencap.
Read rest at CBS17 News
