Lithium is essential to the batteries that power our mobile phones, laptops, electric vehicles and more, making its procurement a critical industry. Batteries account for roughly 87 percent of global lithium production. According to the Energy Institute’s S2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, U.S. lithium production reached 610 metric tons – about 0.3 percent of lithium production globally.
The United States also imported 3,300 tons of lithium last year, mainly from Chile (50 percent) and Argentina (47 percent). Demand for EVs coupled with this dependency on imports has made domestic lithium production a top priority for resource security, and Nevada is poised to play a major role.
A Unique Geologic Setting
Nevada is the only state that has produced lithium since 1966. Today, Albemarle Corp. produces 5,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate from its Silver Peak mine’s brine annually. Among other factors, Nevada’s geological conditions make it prolific in lithium. These include:
- Stretched and thinned continental crust with high heat flow
- Basin-and-range topography with deep fractures and collapsed blocks
- Abundant magmatic activity and volcanic rocks
- Hydrologically closed basins
- Dry climate
In a recent publication, “Lithium in Nevada,” the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology formulated a lithium deposit system based on Nevada’s geologic conditions. This lithium deposit process involves sourcing lithium from rhyolite magma or volcanic rock, transporting it via hydrothermal fluid or groundwater, then trapping it in a closed basin or caldera.
Lithium Resource Estimates in Nevada
Traditionally, lithium deposit types include hard rocks (mainly pegmatite) and geofluids such as paleo-lake evaporative brine, geothermal fluids and oilfield formation waters. Thomas Benson and colleagues in Science Advances recently reported on a new play for lithium exploration, which they call “volcano-sedimentary.”
The researchers examined how clay sediments filling the McDermit Caldera in Nevada acquired rich concentrations of lithium, tracing their origins back through geologic history. The McDermitt Caldera on the Nevada-Oregon border erupted 16 million years ago as the North American continental plate was moving over a mantle plume today called the Yellowstone hotspot. The caldera was filled with lake sediments rich in smectite clay. Hydrothermal fluids locally altered smectite into illite clay, enriching its lithium content several times over.
The McDermitt Caldera’s “clay-hosted” lithium deposits are one of the richest in the world. The researchers measured 1–4 weight percent of lithium in whole rock samples from smectite layers and 4–8 percent from illite layers. Of the 17 specific deposits in Nevada analyzed by the NBMG, only three deposits were brine; the rest were clay-hosted deposits.
The top three clay-hosted lithium deposits in Nevada are:
- Thacker Pass: Located at the southern end of McDermitt Caldera and operated by Vancouver-based Lithium Americas, Thacker Pass is Nevada’s largest deposit, with a resource base of 19.1 million metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent and estimated reserves of 3.7 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent.
- Clayton Valley: Operated by Century Lithium Corp., this mine has a resource base of 6.67 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent and reserves of 1.76 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent. The Silver Peak brine mine is also located nearby.
- Rhyolite Ridge: Operated by Ioneer, this mining area has a resource base of 3.35 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent and reserves of 0.58 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent.
The estimated recoverable total lithium reserves from these three deposits are 5.92 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent. Given that about eight kilograms of lithium are required per EV, this translates to 141 million EVs if all the reserves were extracted. NBMG optimistically puts that number at 2.8 billion EVs, considering the entire lithium resource base in Nevada mines.
Ongoing Challenges
But reaching Nevada’s lithium resource potential poses major challenges. Lithium mining in Silver Peak is done via brine evaporation, which takes 12–18 months, destroys water and has a huge landscape footprint. For the new Nevada mines, direct lithium extractions technologies will be optimal. Water scarcity in Nevada will require water recycling for mining. Furthermore, while mining will bring jobs and economic growth to Nevada’s rural areas and small towns, disruptions to native lands and settlements must be kept minimal, and companies will have to collaborate with local communities.
Finally, fluctuating market prices for lithium will limit resource development in Nevada. In December 2024, U.S. Magnesium, which had recently started producing lithium from Great Salt Lake brine-sourced waste tailings, suspended their lithium operation due to low prices.
Despite these challenges, the McDermitt lithium play offers a significant geologic model for exploration – in the American West and globally – of clay-hosted lithium deposits enriched inside paleo-lakes that sit atop or adjacent to calc-alkaline magmatic rocks. These lithium plays are relatively shallow to drill and have low waste-to-ore strip ratios.