currently found in hard rock, which means it is higher-quality and faster to process than lithium mined from brine. This is one of the few lithium deposits in the U.S. Should the Maine deposit be mined, it could be worth as much as $1.5 billion, a huge windfall for the Freemans and a boon to the Biden Administration’s efforts to jumpstart more domestic mining, processing, and recycling of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements to reduce the U.S.’ dependence on China. at a time when the material is desperately needed for the clean energy transition.īy 2040, the world will need at least 1.1 million metric tons of lithium annually, more than ten times what it currently produces, according to projections by the International Energy Agency. The timing of their discovery, in what has been named Plumbago North, is remarkable the Freemans have stumbled across one of the only hard-rock sources of lithium in the U.S. Now, the Freemans want to expand this pit, near the town of Newry, Maine, so they can mine spodumene, crystals that contain the lithium the U.S. The couple has dug more than a mile of tunnels in pursuit of beautiful stones, and many of their finds - like blue elbaite and rich multi-colored tourmaline - have wound up on display at the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum in nearby Bethel. Since the early 1990s, they’ve been buying up property parcels, studying core samples and old geological maps to determine where to try digging next, then spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on blasting and equipment. But their true love is digging for gemstones, which has brought them for years to Mary’s home state of Maine, the site of some of the best tourmaline hunting in the world. The Freemans make their living selling lab supplies through the Florida-based company they founded 40 years ago, Awareness Technology.
Mary Freeman and her husband Gary found the deposit five years ago while hunting for tourmaline, a striking, multi-colored gemstone found in the region.
The world’s richest known lithium deposit lies deep in the woods of western Maine, in a yawning, sparkling mouth of white and brown rocks that looks like a landslide carved into the side of Plumbago Mountain. To get regular climate coverage from TIME, sign up for a free newsletter. This story was published in partnership with TIME.
0 kommentar(er)
