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The US lithium boom is heading to North Carolina as the US government has announced funding to reopen a mine that closed in 1988.
The The Department of Defense (DoD) has committed $90 million to revive the five-million-ton Kings Mountain mine. strengthening the US military’s net-zero emissions target by 2050 and returning extractive operations to the US.
The money will be spent on the Albemarle Corporation, which plans to begin operations in 2030.
The mayor of the small suburb welcomes the project, but many of the 11,000 residents have expressed concern about being driven from their homes and the impact on the environment.
Lithium is a crucial component of batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles and solar panels. China has dominated the market for decades because 90 percent of the metal extracted is refined in the country.
Kings Mountain was one of the largest lithium producers in the world from 1938 to 1988. The mine has received $90 million from the government to reopen by 2030.
Anthony Di Stasio, director of Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP), said in Tuesday’s announcement: “The agreement with Albemarle demonstrates the DoD’s continued commitment to meeting the needs of our warfighter today and into the future .
“This investment directly supports President Biden’s April 2022 presidential provision on critical materials in large-capacity batteries.”
Last year, the Biden administration set a goal that 50 percent of all new cars and trucks would be sold as electric vehicles by 2030.
The Department of Defense is also the world’s largest institutional user of fossil fuels, but is now working to transition to electricity to reduce emissions.
Albemarle acquired the site in 2015 and now plans to use the $90 million from the Department of Defense purchasing a fleet of mining equipment.
The site has a processing facility so no major construction is required, but the pit is filled with water that must be drained before mining can begin.
The company has been working with residents for years, hoping to convince them that a lithium mine would do wonders for the city.
In 2022, Albemarle held a council meeting in Kings Mountain to share the proposal and answer questions about the project, WFAE reports.
The site has a processing facility so no major construction is required, but the pit is filled with water that must be drained before mining can begin
Kings Mountain (pictured) is a small urban town outside Charlotte where an estimated 11,409 people live
Mayor Scott Neisler said the project is a “no-brainer” because it will create hundreds of new jobs.
“We’ve had mining in this community for over 80 years now. So it’s not something that’s really new. And so we’ve been able to coexist with mining all this time,” Neisler said.
However, some residents do not share the same enthusiasm as their mayor.
Clay Bruggeman bought his home in Kings Mountain, near the mine site, five years ago.
He told Spectrum local news that Albemarle had begun blasting the site in 2022, shaking the ground and creating cracks in the foundation.
“We weren’t sure the first few times, but it feels a bit like an earthquake,” he said.
However, the company said by email that no explosions have occurred near Bruggeman’s house.
Kelli Hopp-Michlosky, vice president, head of global communications and corporate marketing at Albemarle Lithium, shared, “There are no mining operations at the site and no explosions at our Kings Mountain site. … If this resident has been affected by explosions, it is from another source in the community.”
Bruggeman also told the local news station that Albemarle had offered to buy his home and made the same offer to other residents who said they would not be able to find a new home if they had to leave their current location.
Debra Dixon told WSOC-TV she was told her family’s home on Parkgrace Road is just outside the proposed mine site, but not far enough away to be spared its effects.
“I’m very concerned because this place has been paying off for 15 to 20 years,” Dixon said.
Dixon said she has no problem with the mine reopening, but it is concerned that a possible buyout of her property would be enough for her family to pay a new mortgage elsewhere.
Albemarle also operates a mine in Chile (pictured) and another in Clayton Valley near Silver Peak, Nevada, the only active extraction facility in the US.
Albemarle ships some of the extracted lithium from its Nevada plant to North Carolina (pictured) for processing
Kings Mountain was one of the largest lithium producers from 1938 to 1988, when the company folded after cheaper lithium sources were found in South America.
The mine contains one of the few known hard rock lithium deposits in the US, which could last up to 30 years and According to Albemarle, approximately 1.2 million electric vehicles are produced annually.
Eric Norris Albemarle’s president of energy storage said, “As one of the few U.S.-based lithium companies conducting lithium extraction, processing and new lithium battery material research in the United States, Albemarle is uniquely positioned to help drive the clean energy revolution drive.
‘Lithium is an essential ingredient in our sustainable energy future. Demand is expected to increase significantly, and it is imperative to secure our country’s supply of this critical resource.”
The company also operates a mine in Chile and another in Clayton Valley near Silver Peak, Nevada, the only active extraction facility in the US.
Albemarle ships some of the extracted lithium from its Nevada plant to North Carolina for processing.
In March 2022, the Chilean Environment Superintendence (SMA) initiated legal proceedings against Albemarle for excessive extraction of brine during its operations.
The first charge, classified as minor, was charged for withdrawing an average annual flow rate of 452 litres/second for the operating year from October 2019 to September 2020, exceeding the average annual flow limit of 442 litres/second.
The second violation, classified as Serious, was charged because the company did not comply with all the measures it set out in the Aquifer Alert Sector Early Warning Plan (PAT) in March 2021.
The violation occurred after the company failed to notify the SMA of its activation and immediately reduce brine extraction from its project in February and March 2021.
The US is slowly ditching gas-powered cars for electric vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – but the shift also means it will become more dependent on other countries, such as China, to supply the necessary materials.
Mining lithium on U.S. soil would help the nation on its path to self-reliance, which the country has sought but has yet to achieve.
The country is home to only one active lithium mine, Clayton Valley, near Silver Peak, Nevada, but many companies are working to change that.
The US imports hundreds of millions of lithium-ion batteries every year, with the volume increasing.
According to data from the UN Comtrade Database, China was responsible for the most US battery imports last year, with a total trade value of $9.3 billion. South Korea and Japan are popular sources, with $1.3 and $1.0 billion worth of batteries imported into the US in 2022.
The total import value of lithium-ion batteries has almost tripled since 2020, reaching $13.9 billion last year.
Data suggests that around one million tonnes of lithium will be needed to meet global demand by 2040 – an eightfold increase over total global production in 2022.
Although lithium is crucial in the clean energy transition, mining white gold can lead to ecological damage in the long term.
The lithium extraction process uses a lot of water: more than 500,000 liters per ton of lithium.
Miners drill a hole in salt flats to extract lithium and pump salty, mineral-rich brine to the surface.
After several months, the water evaporates, leaving a mixture of manganese, potassium, borax and lithium salts, filtered and placed in another evaporation bath.
After 12 and 18 months, the mixture is filtered sufficiently to extract lithium carbonate.
Over a year, the production of 60,000 tons of lithium could devastate the surrounding environment – requiring up to 30 million tons of earth to be dug.
This is more than the annual amount of dirt dug up to produce all but seven or eight of the coal output of all U.S. states
In May 2016, dead fish were found floating in China’s Liqi River, where a toxic chemical was leaking from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine.
Carcasses of cows and yak were also found floating in the river, likely killed by drinking the contaminated water.
Lithium mining is also harmful to the soil and causes air pollution.
In Argentina’s Salar de Hombre Muerto, residents believe lithium operations are contaminating streams used by people and livestock to irrigate crops.
In Chile, the landscape is marred by mountains of discarded salt and canals filled with polluted water with an unnatural blue tint.
According to Guillermo Gonzalez, a lithium battery expert from the University of Chile, “This is not a green solution – it is not a solution at all.”