California has enough lithium to supply the world, but can it open a new mine?

The United States currently imports 25% of its consumed lithium, down from 50% in 2020.

California governor Gavin Newsom announced the state’s Salton Sea lithium deposit could yield 3.4 million tons of the valuable commodity, or enough to meet global demand for the world’s primary battery material for 25 years. Critics warn that due to the state’s environmental regulations, it’s unlikely extraction can ever be brought up to scale.

“We’ve been all-in on Lithium Valley, building up a global hub for clean energy and making sure that local communities benefit from this once-in-a-generation opportunity,” said Newsom in a statement. “This is further evidence that California is poised to become the world’s largest source of batteries for our cars, homes, and businesses.”

The lithium is set to be extracted from the waters of the Salton Sea, a salt flat and often temporary lake that became a permanent body of water in the early 20th century when an irrigation canal burst and took two years to repair. For decades, the Salton Sea contained enough fresh water to be stocked with fish and was the site of casinos and resorts catering to regional residents. As water enters the Salton Sea as agricultural runoff enters the lake and evaporates, the minerals in the water are left behind, increasing the body’s salinity over time despite the addition of fresh water.

Among the minerals accumulating in the lake is lithium, a key commodity for the production of the current generation of batteries. While alternative battery technologies are emerging using cheaper, more widely available minerals such as magnesium, graphene, salt, and iron-air batteries, lithium remains the most commonly used base mineral for everything from smartphones to electric cars and grid-scale energy storage systems.

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