The world’s largest lithium reserve found! Worth $1.5 trillion
Lithium is used in battery production. Bad news for China, which holds 90 percent of the market: 40 million metric tons of lithium-containing clay has been discovered in the McDermitt Caldera in the US. This is almost twice as much as the lithium deposits in Bolivia, the so-called “world’s largest”…
The world’s largest lithium reserve was found in the McDermitt Caldera (a volcanic shape formed by the collapse of the soil as a result of a volcanic eruption) on the border of the US states of Nevada and Oregon. According to the British Daily Mail newspaper, clay containing nearly 40 million metric tons of precious metals was discovered in the 64-kilometer-long caldera.
The price per metric ton is exactly 37 thousand dollars
This is almost twice as much as the lithium in the salt flats of the South American country of Bolivia, known as the largest lithium reserve to date… Noting that the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate is $37,000 per metric ton by 2022, the newspaper made the following calculation: “That means the volcano is sitting on potentially $1.48 trillion worth of the precious metal.”
The extraction of lithium will be carried out by the Canadian-based Lithium Americas Corporation. The company, which is expected to hit the first pickaxe in 2026, will work in the region for 40 years. In the first phase, 40 thousand tons will be extracted annually. Lithium is used in the production of batteries used in smartphones, electric cars and solar panels. Pointing out that 90 percent of the market is in the hands of China, the Daily Mail underlined that the newly found reserve is “bad news for the Beijing administration”.
Caldera formed 19 million years ago
The McDermitt Caldera formed about 19 million years ago and last erupted 16 million years ago, experts told the newspaper: “The eruption pushed minerals from the ground to the surface, leaving lithium-rich smectite clay. Faults and fractures also formed from the explosion, causing lithium to rise to the crater’s surface.”
“The US will have its own lithium supply”
“The US will have its own supply of lithium and industries will have less to fear from supply shortages,” said Tom Benson, director of the mining company that will work in the McDermitt Caldera. Anouk Borst, a geologist at the University of Leuven, said: “It is a very, very important lithium deposit. It could change the dynamics of lithium globally in terms of price, security of supply and geopolitics.”
