Background
By 2030, 46% more lithium (Li) will be needed annually to meet battery demand necessary to avoid limiting the planned growth of clean energy and electric vehicle sectors. The United States is a net importer of Li, accounting for only 1-2% of global production, and reliance on imported Li has been identified as a limiter of growth for the domestic renewable and clean energy sectors and a significant national security risk. The general geologic conditions conducive to concentrating Li in volcano-sedimentary deposits are present across a large swath of the western United States but only a small subset of basins within this region are known to host highly concentrated Li deposits. The Clayton Valley area of Nevada is unique in that it is the only producing Li-brine deposit in the U.S. and it also hosts promising volcano-sedimentary Li-bearing clay deposits, making it an ideal natural laboratory to develop comprehensive exploration concepts for the geologic controls on economic accumulations of Li. Securing a domestic supply chain for Li will only be successful if a rigorous approach is taken to Li exploration that allows us to systematically predict why some areas will host high-concentration Li accumulations while others do not, despite apparently similar geologic histories.
Approach
This Seed Projects for Research, INnovation, and Technology (SPRINT) collaboration between SwRI and the University of Texas at Dallas supports field work, analyses, and data synthesis to generate datasets necessary for (i) securing larger external funding opportunities, and (ii) refining hypotheses regarding geologic controls on Li accumulation and developing concepts to expand domestic Li exploration and production in the U.S. To achieve these goals, the project team is collaboratively performing the following tasks: (1) structural and tectonic analysis, including construction of geologic cross sections and a tectonic framework model for the Clayton Valley area; (2) acquisition, processing, and analysis of structural and photogrammetry data that will be used as direct inputs for the regional cross sections and tectonic framework model; (3) compilation of published maps and geographical datasets critical for generating the structural cross sections and tectonic framework models; and (4) sedimentology and basin analysis, Li resource assessment, and geochronology to constrain the depositional and Li enrichment history of the Clayton Valley area.
Accomplishments
The first field campaign for the project was completed in Clayton Valley, Nevada in July 2024. Team members from SwRI and UTD performed the following tasks during and after the initial field campaign: (1) Reconnaissance of the Clayton Valley area via both field and drone mapping to identify areas to focus future field work and subsequent externally funded projects; (2) Collection of sedimentological and structural field observations and samples for compositional analyses and age dating; (3) Preliminary geologic field mapping of surface geology in key areas, and investigation and identification of key geologic structural features (fault and fracture networks) to be targeted during the second field campaign in Fall 2024; (4) Initial detailed geologic field mapping of surface geology in key areas to identify and date sedimentary sequences; (5) Acquisition and processing of aerial drone imagery to generate high resolution digital elevation models, orthomosaics, and three-dimensional digital reconstructions of key areas within Clayton Valley; and (6) Compilation of previously published data for the Clayton Valley area and development of a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) framework for the area.