The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is putting a sizeable chunk of money behind a plan to pull lithium out of the ground in California. They just committed a $1.4 billion loan to EnergySource Minerals, a company that wants to build a processing plant near the Salton Sea in Imperial County.
The goal is to produce 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide every year. To put that in perspective, that’s enough to power about 500,000 electric car batteries. While the company originally hoped to be up and running by now, they are currently aiming for trial runs in 2026 and full production by late 2027.
Mining Lithium Near the Salton Sea
Extracting lithium from this area isn’t as simple as digging a hole. The lithium is trapped in hot, salty water deep underground, “geothermal brines.” This water is packed with other metals that aren’t very valuable, which makes separating the lithium a bit of a headache.
Because the brine is so hot and corrosive, it has a habit of breaking the machinery used to filter it. “The Salton Sea has always had this reputation of being difficult,” said Cameron Perks, a lithium analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
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The government stepped in because of this difficulty. While other regions like Arkansas are seeing faster private investment, California’s projects are considered a bit riskier. “You don’t want the government investing in things that the companies would have invested in anyway,” Ian Lange, a director at the Colorado School of Mines, said. “You want the government investing in things that are right at the edge.”
Building a Local Supply Chain
This loan is part of a bigger push to make sure the U.S. doesn’t have to rely entirely on other countries for battery materials. Right now, Chinese companies handle most of the world’s lithium chemicals. By building plants at home, the U.S. creates a buffer against trade issues.
It won’t be easy to scale up these new methods, but officials believe it’s a necessary move for the future of tech and energy. Jigar Shah, who recently led the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, noted that while these sources are promising, they are also unpredictable.
“Brine and clay resources have the greatest but most unpredictable scale-up potential,” he said.
Ford has already agreed to buy lithium from this plant once it’s ready.
