Overview
- The USGS study, published Wednesday, estimates about 2.3 million metric tons of economically recoverable lithium in the Appalachians at a 50% confidence level.
- Roughly 1.43 million metric tons are concentrated in pegmatites in the Carolinas, with about 900,000 metric tons in Maine and New Hampshire.
- USGS says the resource equals about 328 years of recent U.S. imports and could supply batteries for 130 million electric vehicles or 1.6 million grid‑scale systems.
- The deposits are in hard‑rock pegmatites that would require conventional mining and lengthy permitting, and no new mines have been announced in direct response to the report.
- The U.S. still relies on imports for more than half its lithium while China dominates refining, so any shift to domestic supply would also need new processing capacity.