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"Scientists Discover Massive Lithium Deposits Beneath the Eastern U.S. That Would End a Decades-Long Foreign Dependency

A sweeping federal assessment has uncovered lithium reserves stretching from the Carolinas to Maine, putting the U.S. closer to breaking its dependence on foreign suppliers than at any point in decades.

Published on May 8, 2026

The Appalachian Mountains built their reputation on coal. Federal scientists now say the same ancient range sits on one of the largest lithium deposits ever assessed on U.S. soil.

A study published in late April 2026 by the U.S. Geological Survey in the journal Natural Resources Research puts the figure at roughly 2.3 million metric tons of economically recoverable lithium oxide, enough, at last year's import rate, to cover 328 years of U.S. supply.

Scale that number against what lithium actually powers. T

he USGS says the deposit could fill batteries for 130 million electric vehicles, 500 billion cellphones, or 1.6 million grid-scale units large enough to stabilize a power grid.

The United States currently produces less than one percent of the world's lithium. That gap is why this assessment landed with force."