RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN/NewsNation) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is calling a newly identified lithium deposit in the Appalachian Mountains — concentrated in the Carolinas — a “great find,” saying it could help the United States reduce its reliance on China for critical minerals essential to modern technology.
Federal officials made the announcement last week, just as a major North Carolina lithium mine west of Charlotte in Kings Mountain cleared a key permit weeks ago.
The Kings Mountain lithium mine in Cleveland County was dormant since the 1980s until the U.S. Department of Defense in 2023 agreed to purchase $90 million in lithium from the 800-acre Albemarle site off Interstate 85, about 35 miles west of Charlotte.
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That guaranteed purchase allowed Albemarle to move forward with spending money to restart the lithium mining effort, reducing U.S. dependence on China.
“You hear a lot about unleashing energy dominance. We also care about batteries and magnets and chips and semiconductors,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said during a NewsNation appearance last weekend. “When we have our own resources within our own country, we should not only be extracting them here — we should be processing them here.”…