Haley Zaremba

Haley Zaremba is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City. She has extensive experience writing and editing environmental features, travel pieces, local news in the…

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• Soaring global demand and rising prices for lithium are fueling a resurgence in worldwide extraction efforts, with major geopolitical implications as the US seeks to ease its reliance on China’s dominant supply chain.
• Northeast Texas is poised for a domestic lithium boom due to massive deposits in the Smackover Formation, attracting major energy companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron, who plan to start production as soon as 2027.
• The rush to extract lithium domestically presents significant trade-offs, including major threats to public and environmental health from the water-intensive process and potential for leaching toxins into freshwater resources.

2026 is shaping up to be a ‘hot year for lithium.’ The metal, which is sometimes referred to as ‘white gold’ due to skyrocketing demand for the stuff, is integral in the production of all kinds of technology and clean energy manufacturing. You probably have at least one lithium-ion battery within arms reach at this very moment inside of your phone or smartwatch or any number of other rechargeable devices. 

And while lithium prices have been volatile for years as producers struggle to match production with demand growth, they are now on the rise. “What happens next could have big implications for mining and battery technology,” reports the MIT Technology Review. Higher lithium prices mean that there will be a resurgence in the worldwide race for extraction, with major implications for global geopolitics.

At present, China dominates global lithium supply chains. Beijing controls an estimated 72 percent of the global lithium-ion market, and Chinese companies control a quarter of the world’s lithium mining capacity. Even more striking, in 2024, more than 80 percent of battery cells on the planet were made in China, raising major questions and concerns as to geopolitical risk and market resilience in tech supply chains.

The United States has been seeking to ease its reliance on Chinese lithium and friendshore its supply chains for years now, but forging trade relationships with major lithium producers in South America has proven difficult. Rising lithium prices will make it more feasible and worthwhile for companies outside of China to start their own extraction operations and diversify the global market, opening new opportunity for a North American lithium boom. 

The United States is home to considerable lithium supplies, it’s just a matter of building up a domestic industry around the metal’s extraction and processing. Currently, there is only one operating lithium mine in the United States, the Silver Peak mine in Nevada’s Esmeralda County. But that is going to change in a hurry as the Trump administration and the domestic sector rush to build up a U.S.-based lithium industry.

That goal could soon totally transform Northeast Texas, which sits atop massive natural deposits of the white gold. “The Smackover Formation, which broadly sweeps from East Texas to Florida and once gushed with oil, is now being hailed as containing some of the purest lithium brine in the world,” the Dallas Morning News reported this week. 

And the private sector is taking notice. “Already, some of the world’s largest energy companies, like ExxonMobil and Chevron, have staked claim to portions of the Smackover Formation, announcing drilling and large acquisitions of land,” The Dallas Morning News continued. ExxonMobil plans to produce lithium starting in 2027. 

While this could prove beneficial for the nation’s energy autonomy and for local economies in need of jobs as the shale revolution cools down, there are some major trade-offs associated with homeshoring lithium extraction. Lithium extract poses significant threats to public and environmental health thanks to the toxic chemicals and heavy metals involved in the process. Not only is lithium extraction an extremely water-intensive operation, it also poses significant risk to freshwater resources in the form of leaching toxins into the soil and water table. 

Plus, there is concern that the lithium boom may not offer long-term prosperity to Northeast Texas. “Businessmen are quick to assure residents that the race for lithium isn’t a gold rush or boom-and-bust scenario, but some have admitted the early stages, including landmen knocking on doors for leasing, has felt a little like the Wild West,” reports the Dallas Morning News. 

With the historic volatility of lithium prices, there is cause for concern that the white gold rush will be short lived in the United States. If so, the environmental and health hazards associated with a lithium boom could outlast the financial benefits by far.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com 

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