Arkansas may have vast resources that could reshape the world’s energy needs. That material is a precious battery component called lithium, also known as “white gold” or “new gasoline.”
This is an important discovery because renewable energy requires batteries, and many batteries require lithium. However, this resource is in short supply worldwide, especially in the United States.
This week’s announcement from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests the U.S. may have all the lithium it needs in ancient saline waters dating back to the Jurassic period and buried deep underground in southern Arkansas. I am doing it.
The USGS said in a statement that there could be between 5 million and 19 million tons of lithium in reserves, enough to meet nine times the expected global demand for automotive lithium batteries. .
The problem is finding a way to extract this much lithium without wreaking havoc on the environment or the water table. Lithium is notoriously difficult to extract and has been linked to water depletion and other problems.
The discovery in Arkansas is not unprecedented; other countries also have large, hard-to-reach lithium deposits. But this location in Arkansas has already attracted the attention of companies like Exxon who want to develop a practical way to mine the precious metal.
What is lithium? Why do we need it?
Lithium is a silvery, soft alkali metal that in its pure form is highly reactive and flammable and must be stored in vacuum, an inert gas such as argon, or an inert liquid such as mineral oil.
Lithium-ion batteries are also used in mobile phones, laptops, electric vehicles, and large energy storage systems because they can also produce fast-charging, high-energy-density, and long-life batteries.
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Unfortunately, it’s also in short supply as the world moves from burning fossil fuels for energy to carbon-neutral power sources like solar and wind. Utility-scale battery installations can store energy when the wind blows or the sun shines and make it available when people want to use it.
This includes wind and solar power generation, including the U.S. “wind corridor” that stretches from North Dakota and Montana south to west Texas, and utility-scale solar power, where the resources are most abundant in the Southeast and Southwest. This is especially important in areas of abundance.
Does the US have enough lithium?
According to the USGS, the United States currently relies on imports for about 25% of its lithium. Currently, most of the batteries are made in China, so the country is working to expand domestic battery manufacturing. Securing critical minerals, including lithium, is part of a federal strategy to protect U.S. manufacturing and supply chains.
Lithium is produced from hard rock mines, clay mines, or ancient brines.
Why is there so much lithium in Arkansas?
Arkansas is part of what is known as the Smackover Formation, a 200-million-year-old remnant of the ocean that covered parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Parts of it are rich in oil reserves, but only recently has it been discovered that there are also pockets of lithium dissolved in salty water deep underground.
These lithium deposits lie underground in southern Arkansas and are beginning to become accessible as drilling technology advances. The problem now is finding the technology to bring the brine to the surface and recover the lithium from it.
A USGS study released last month evaluated these deposits.
“We estimate that there is enough dissolved lithium in the region to replace, for example, lithium imports from the United States,” Katherine Kunirim, a USGS hydrologist and the study’s principal investigator, said in a statement. “There is,” he said.
He cautioned that this estimate does not take into account what it takes to bring the lithium to the surface or extract it from salt water.
What issues are involved in lithium mining?
One reason lithium is expensive and rare is that it is usually difficult to extract. In some areas, mining is believed to be linked to water depletion and other problems.
Farmers in Nevada say lithium mines are draining underground freshwater aquifers of their wells. According to the settlement agreement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in February that a lithium mining project in California illegally drained 1,200 acres of sensitive wetlands.
Exxon has already begun thinking about how to get to the lithium in Arkansas and developing technology to remove it from salt water. The company drilled its first lithium well there last year and said in a statement that it aims to become a major lithium supplier by 2030.
