Nevada's Lithium Landscape

The fastest-growing need for lithium is for powering the transition to renewable energy. Electrical currents run through it easily, making it valuable for the batteries needed to store the energy generated by wind turbines and solar panels.

It is also a key part of much smaller batteries, such as those in our smartphones and laptops.

About 87% of current lithium demand is for battery needs, although a small amount is used as medication to treat conditions like bipolar disorder.

Currently, only about 5% of lithium is recycled for new uses, but even if every ounce of lithium is recycled, it wouldn’t be enough to meet growing demand.

Starting around 2016, global lithium production exploded. In 2023, around 186 thousand tons were produced, with most of it coming from Australia, Chile, and China. The amount produced in the US in 2023 (1 thousand tons) is dwarfed by Australia’s production of 86 thousand tons.  

With so little lithium production in the US, and much of the lithium that is extracted around the world passing through refineries in China, experts believe that increasing domestic production is critical for national security.

85% of the known lithium deposits in the US are found in Nevada.

Nevada's Clayton Valley is home to Silver Peak, the only active lithium production site in the US. The Albemarle Corporation has been extracting lithium here since 1966. It produces about 1,000 metric tons of “contained lithium” per year, with plans to double production. The lithium-rich brines and clays that line Clayton Valley have led to nearly 5,400 lithium claims by about 30 different companies.

Farther north near the border with Oregon sits the largest lithium deposit in the state, Thacker Pass. Construction began on a new lithium mine here in 2023.

Lithium is most abundant in deserts like those found across Nevada.

Nevada’s lithium has concentrated in the state’s valleys over millions of years. Magma rising from the Earth’s core cooled and solidified at the surface, forming lithium-rich igneous rocks. These rocks shape Nevada’s more than 120 mountain ranges. Weathering from water and wind then breaks down these rocks slowly over time, carrying lithium and other minerals to the valleys, where they collect and concentrate. Some of Nevada's mountain-ringed valleys have accumulated sediment up to 3 miles deep this way.

In Nevada and across the Great Basin, these valleys drain into the groundwater aquifers below, rather than into rivers and streams. As water pools in shallow lakes at the bottom of valleys and evaporates in the strong Nevada sun, lithium and other minerals are left behind.

Some of these “closed basins,” where mountains ring an enclosed valley, are actually calderas—the remnants of large volcanic eruptions occurring in Nevada over the past 40 million years.

Tectonic activity also helps concentrate lithium. The Great Basin is slowly spreading, sinking the valley bottoms closer to the volcanic and geothermal activity below the surface. When groundwater is exposed to high temperatures underground, it often continues leaching minerals from surrounding rocks.

Nevada’s naturally heated waters are already used to produce energy, and scientists hope to find a way to combine lithium extraction with existing geothermal infrastructure.

When lithium and other minerals concentrate in groundwater, the enriched water is known as “brines,” and these brines are the target for most lithium mining in the state. Of about 40 proposed Nevada lithium mines, 75% would target brines, while the rest seek to extract it from rock and clay.

Silver Peak uses a method called “evaporative concentration” to extract the lithium from the brines. This process requires pumping the brines from underground aquifers into a series of shallow ponds to allow for evaporation. Once the lithium and other minerals are sufficiently concentrated, a chemical plant onsite extracts and separates out the lithium. Approximately 3.8 billion gallons of brine are processed this way each year at Silver Peak.

Mining lithium from brines is generally considered less environmentally destructive than mining metals from rock, but there are drawbacks to consider. The first is the large amount of water lost to evaporation—an issue of particular concern for Nevada, the driest state in the nation. Groundwater could also be contaminated if the evaporation ponds leak or by the re-injection of processed brines.

Because the evaporation ponds and chemical plants require a significant amount of space, there are also concerns about the destruction of sensitive habitat for plants and wildlife—an issue playing out in southern Nevada, where lithium claims are raising concerns for the newly listed endangered species, Tiehm’s buckwheat.

A different way of extracting lithium is being tested across the country, including in Clayton Valley. This process, called “Direct Lithium Extraction” relies on advanced technologies, rather than evaporation, to separate lithium from brines. Although the method hasn’t yet been implemented at a large scale, it has the potential to produce more lithium, faster, while returning most of the brine water to aquifers. A new plant in Clayton Valley, the Clayton Valley Lithium Pilot Plant Project, is Nevada’s first attempt at the process.

DRI scientists have produced a guide for evaluating the potential impacts of lithium projects on water resources that is  available on DRI's website .

In the report, the "ideal scenario" for sustainable lithium extraction is posited as using Direct Lithium Extraction at existing geothermal plants. This is because the infrastructure for pumping and re-injecting brines already exists at these facilities, minimizing the need for additional land development. Groundwater would also be returned to the aquifers rather than lost to evaporation. As scientists work toward improving Direct Lithium Extraction technologies, this method holds promise for the future, but has not yet been implemented.