This data release provides the descriptions of approximately 20 U.S. sites that include mineral regions, mines, and mineral occurrences (deposits and prospects) that contain enrichments of lithium (Li). This release includes sites that have a contained resource and (or) past production of lithium metal greater than 15,000 metric tons. Sites in this database occur in Arkansas, California, Nevada, North Carolina, and Utah. There are several deposits that were not included in the database because they did not meet the cutoff requirement, and those occur in Arizona, Colorado, the New England area, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. In the United States, lithium was first mined from pegmatite orebodies in South Dakota in the late 1800s. The Kings Mountain pegmatite belt of North Carolina also had significant production from pegmatites, and the area may still contain as much as 750 million metric tons (Mt) of ore containing 5 Mt lithium metal (Kesler and others, 2012). In 2018, U.S. production of lithium was restricted to a single lithium-brine mining operation in Nevada. In 2018, the U.S. had a net import reliance as a percentage of apparent consumption of more than 50 percent for lithium (U.S. Geological Survey, 2019). The U.S. is not a significant producer of lithium, so the commodity is mainly imported from Chile and Argentina to meet consumer demand. Lithium is necessary for strategic, consumer, and commercial applications. The primary uses for lithium are in batteries, ceramics, glass, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and polymers (U.S. Geological Survey, 2019). Lithium has excellent electrical conductivity and low density (lithium metal will float on water), making it an ideal component for battery manufacturing. Lithium is traded in three primary forms: mineral concentrates, mineral compounds (from brines), and refined metal (electrolysis from lithium chloride). Lithium mineralogy is diverse; it occurs in a variety of pegmatite minerals such as spodumene, lepidolite, amblygonite, and in the clay mineral hectorite. Current global production of lithium is dominated by pegmatite and closed-basin brine deposits, but there are significant resources in lithium-bearing clay minerals, oilfield brines, and geothermal brines (Bradley and others, 2017). The entries and descriptions in the database were derived from published papers, reports, data, and internet documents representing a variety of sources, including geologic and exploration studies described in State, Federal, and industry reports. Resources extracted from older sources might not be compliant with current rules and guidelines in minerals industry standards such as National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) or the Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code (JORC Code). The inclusion of a particular lithium mineral deposit in this database is not meant to imply that the deposit is currently economic. Rather, these deposits were included to capture the characteristics of the larger lithium deposits in the United States, which are diverse in their geology and resource potential. Inclusion of material in the database is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The authors welcome additional published information in order to continually update and refine this dataset. Bradley, D.C., Stillings, L.L., Jaskula, B.W., Munk, LeeAnn, and McCauley, A.D., 2017, Lithium, chap. K of Schulz, K.J., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., Seal, R.R., II, and Bradley, D.C., eds., Critical mineral resources of the United States—Economic and environmental geology and prospects for future supply: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1802, p. K1–K21, https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1802K. Kesler, S.E., Gruber, P.W., Medina, P.A., Keoleian, G.A., Everson, M.P., and Wallington, T.J., 2012, Global lithium resources—relative importance of pegmatite, brine and other deposits: Ore Geology Reviews, v. 48, October ed., p. 55—69. U.S. Geological Survey, 2019, Mineral commodity summaries 2019: U.S. Geological Survey, 200 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/70202434.

The point and polygon layers within this geodatabase present the global distribution of selected mineral resource features (deposits, mines, districts, mineral regions) for 22 minerals or mineral commodities considered critical to the economy and security of the United States as of 2017. These data complement the report by Schulz and others (2017) which provides national and global information on 23 critical minerals - antimony (Sb), barite (barium, Ba), beryllium (Be), cobalt (Co), fluorite or fluorspar (fluorine, F), gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), graphite (carbon, C), hafnium (Hf), indium (In), lithium (Li), manganese (Mn), niobium (Nb), platinum-group elements (PGE), rare-earth elements (REE), rhenium (Re), selenium (Se), tantalum (Ta), tellurium (Te), tin (Sn), titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), and zirconium (Zr) resources. The geospatial locations for deposits containing selenium, which is recovered mainly as a byproduct of other produced mineral commodities, is not included in this geodatabase. These geospatial data and the accompanying report are an update to information published in 1973 in U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 820, United States Mineral Resources. For the current and full discussion of the individual critical minerals, their uses, identified resources, national and global distribution, geologic overview, resource assessment, and geoenvironmental considerations see: Schulz, K.J., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., Seal, R.R., II, and Bradley, D.C., eds., 2017, Critical mineral resources of the United States—Economic and environmental geology and prospects for future supply: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1802, 777 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1802

In 2024, reserves of lithium in Chile amounted to an estimated *** million metric tons, the largest worldwide. That same year, Australia held a total lithium reserves of some ***** million metric tons. Australia leads lithium production Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal which occurs only in compounds as a mineral due to its high reactivity. Mineral reserves are defined as those minerals that were extractable or producible at the time of estimate. Chile had the largest lithium reserves worldwide, by a large margin. However, Australia was the top country in lithium mine production in 2024, with an output of ** thousand metric tons of lithium that year.

Lithium and the future of mobility Batteries account for the largest share of lithium end-usage. Propelled by the growth in the electric vehicle market, powered by rechargeable lithium batteries, global lithium demand is forecast to reach *** million metric tons by 2025. As of the first half of 2024, Chinese CATL and BYD were the top producers of lithium battery cells, combined accounting for more than half of the global market.

Rhyolite Ridge is located in the northern Silver Peak Range of southwestern Nevada and contains significant sediment-hosted lithium and boron deposits that are nearing development. Despite the economic importance of these resources, the primary source of lithium, deformation history, and the relative influences of structural, stratigraphic, and magmatic controls on lithium enrichment are uncertain. This report presents new 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping, whole-rock geochemistry, and a sub-regional compilation of Cenozoic geochronologic data to support the evaluation and assessment of these critical minerals through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI). Most of the economic lithium and boron mineralization occurs in the upper Miocene to lower Pliocene Cave Spring formation, which is composed of interbedded lacustrine claystone, marl, limestone, volcaniclastic rocks, and tuffs. Anomalously high concentrations of lithium (up to 2,620 ppm; Reynolds and Chafetz, 2020) are bound in marl, smectite, and mixed illite-smectite clays, while boron is primarily associated with searlesite. The Cave Spring formation is mostly contained within a single structural basin in the study area and was deposited in an alluvial-lacustrine environment on top of ~6.1–5.8 Ma rhyolitic tuffs and lavas of the Rhyolite Ridge and Argentite Canyon formations. Geochemical data from these pre-basin volcanic rocks contain exceptionally high whole-rock lithium concentrations up to 451 ppm, though with notable spatial heterogeneity. The high lithium (and boron) concentrations and considerable spatial extent and volume of these rhyolites implicate them as a probable source for the mineralization in the Cave Spring formation. The White Hill and Cave Spring faults are a pair of conjugate normal faults that controlled deposition of the Cave Spring formation in an internally drained, alluvial-lacustrine basin that experienced WNW-directed extension since latest Miocene time (Ogilvie, 2023). Field relations, subsurface well data, airborne electromagnetic surveys, and our synthesis of geochronologic constraints indicate a similar style of extension across the study area associated with both NW- and SE-dipping normal faults. Active faulting and basin subsidence continues today near the western map boundary along the Emigrant Peak fault zone that bounds northern Fish Lake Valley.This research and field work was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) Program and National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, under USGS award number G21AC10365, and by a graduate student research grant to I. Ogilvie from the Geological Society of America.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has the largest cobalt reserves in the world, at some *********** metric tons as of 2024. With the world's total cobalt reserves amounting to ********** metric tons that year, the DR Congo accounted for more than **** of the worldwide reserves of the metal. This was followed by Australia, which held an impressive *********** metric tons of the global cobalt reserves in 2024. Cobalt: coveted, yet not so rare Although cobalt is not especially rare – ranking 32nd in global abundance among metals – it has become an increasingly important commodity due to its use in batteries, as well as in alloys, chemicals and ceramics, cemented carbides, and more. It is forecast that in 2040, the global cobalt demand for use in batteries will amount to ******* tons, up from ****** metric tons in recent years. Cobalt's use in batteries applies particularly to the batteries of electric cars which have transformed the demand for this metal; in 2024 the price of cobalt stood at ** U.S. dollars per pound. U.S. cobalt consumption The United States used some ***** metric tons of cobalt in 2023, based on apparent consumption. Cobalt supply in the North American country is achieved primarily through imports and scrap materials. Most of the country's consumption of this metal is destined to the production of superalloys, followed by chemical and ceramic uses.