The Biden administration looks to domestic lithium mining to boost U.S. energy security and counter China.
Thousands of miles west of Washington, D.C., in the sprawling, lithium-rich expanses of Nevada, the Biden administration is pushing for a mining boom that it hopes will boost the country’s energy security.
Few minerals are as crucial to the global energy transition as lithium—also known as white gold—which underpins the powerful lithium-ion batteries in many of the world’s green technologies, including electric vehicles and wind turbines. Given its importance, demand for the mineral is projected to explode in the coming decades, according to the International Energy Agency.
Washington’s problem is that it has been out of the lithium game for decades. Despite having some of the world’s biggest lithium deposits, the United States is home to just one operational lithium mine: Albemarle’s Silver Peak mine in Nevada, which today accounts for a minuscule fraction of global production.
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