"An Amount Enough for the Whole World"... White Oil Jackpot Hits This Place in the US

Large Lithium Deposits Found in Arkansas, USA
"More Than Enough to Meet Global Demand"
Essential for Electric Vehicle Batteries... Called 'White Oil'

A study has revealed that a significant amount of lithium, an essential material for electric vehicle batteries, is deposited in Arkansas, located in the south-central United States.

A study has found that a significant amount of lithium, an essential material for electric vehicle batteries, is deposited in Arkansas, located in the south-central United States. The photo is not directly related. [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

On the 21st (local time), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced the recent discovery of a large lithium deposit in an underground brine reservoir in Arkansas. The agency, together with researchers from the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment, created a 'Lithium Concentration Map of Smackover Formation Brine' based on existing data and newly collected lithium concentration data from the brine. The Smackover Formation refers to a porous, permeable limestone region spanning parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. This area, once an ancient sea, is known to contain deposits of oil and bromine.

Photo unrelated to the article. [Source=Pixabay]

According to a report by The New York Times (NYT), researchers estimated, with the help of water quality tests and machine learning, that between 5 million and 19 million tons of lithium are deposited. This amount corresponds to 35% to 136% of the current lithium reserves in the United States and is nine times greater than the global lithium demand projected by the International Energy Agency for 2030. The USGS described it as "a deposit sufficient to meet global lithium demand and then some." The director of the Geological Survey stated, "Lithium is an essential mineral for energy transition," adding, "Increasing domestic lithium production in the U.S. holds great significance for job creation and supply chain restoration."

ExxonMobil, the largest oil company in the United States, also recently stated in an interview that "exploratory wells have been drilled in Arkansas" and that they are "evaluating whether lithium can be economically extracted." Extracting lithium directly from brine causes less environmental pollution, but from a corporate perspective, it presents higher costs. Previously, ExxonMobil announced that it plans to produce battery-grade lithium starting in 2027 and expects to supply lithium for more than one million electric vehicle batteries annually by 2030.

Meanwhile, lithium is a substance harvested as brine or from salt flats through evaporation, primarily produced in South America and Australia. It accounts for 40% of the cost of electric vehicle batteries and is sometimes called "white oil." The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) forecasts that lithium demand will increase approximately 40-fold by 2040.