Starting just outside Charlotte, North Carolina, a vast underground deposit of lithium stretches south for 25 miles. A key component of rechargeable batteries and energy grid storage systems, the soft, silvery metal is a global commodity, making this subterranean cache a geopolitically important and potentially lucrative resource.
Here, lithium primarily occurs within granite-like rocks called pegmatite, bound to a green-tinged mineral called spodumene. Two large lithium mines once operated in this region — “the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt” — but closed decades ago. As demand for renewable energy climbs, mining companies have growing interest in the area.
One of the country’s largest lithium deposits exists underground outside Charlotte, North Carolina…