Electric Vehicle Push brings North Carolina back to its lithium mining roots

The Kings Mountain hiking trail, known as Cardio Hill, overlooks a lake-sized pit of rainwater, but the steep terrain about 30 miles west of Charlotte is now one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the United States.

Beneath that ground is a mine that has been dormant since the 1980s and is believed to contain one of the country’s largest reserves of lithium, a crucial ingredient in the batteries needed to power electric vehicles.

Albemarle Corporation, the world’s largest lithium producer, is seeking to revive the mine and capitalize on the Biden administration’s push to develop a domestic electric vehicle industry. It’s just one of many projects underway in North Carolina, where companies are racing to obtain permits for billions of dollars in lithium investments, partly to try to take advantage of lucrative incentives included in President Biden’s new climate law.

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen traveled to North Carolina to visit Livent, a lithium hydroxide processing company that currently sources its lithium from Canada and Argentina. The company expanded its plant in Bessemer City, N.C., and increased production capacity there by 50 percent, a decision it attributed to the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes tax breaks for American-made electric vehicles.

During her tour, Ms. Yellen said the United States is making progress in reducing its dependence on China through its energy initiatives.

“Key supply chains in areas like clean energy have become over-concentrated in China, in part due to unfair non-market practices over decades,” Ms. Yellen said. “With a massive increase in domestic production capacity, our country will become less dependent on other countries for the inputs we need and we will make great progress toward energy security.”

Ms. Yellen suggested that investments like those in North Carolina would lower energy costs and deliver higher wages to low-income communities.

Still, not everyone in the state welcomes the revival of lithium mining. Neighbors of proposed mining projects have tried to derail plans to start digging by raising concerns about pollution, soil erosion and the release of toxic chemicals, such as arsenic, that could contaminate local water supplies. Some environmental experts warn that proponents of lithium as a green energy solution overlook how carbon-intensive it is to extract the material, comparing it to fracking or coal mining.

“The real truth is that lithium mining has a huge impact on the environment,” said Marco Tedesco, a research professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

North Carolina was once a center for lithium production, but the industry collapsed decades ago due to foreign competition and a lack of domestic demand. That’s been changing since the 2022 Climate and Tax Act created big subsidies to build a domestic electric vehicle supply chain that could compete with China. States like North Carolina have benefited from the lithium rush and become frontiers in an emerging Battery Belt.

The Biden administration will look to further boost domestic manufacturing on Friday when it releases proposed rules that will dictate the extent to which foreign companies, especially in China, can supply parts and products for American-made vehicles that will receive billions of dollars. in subsidies.

Eric Norris, the president of energy storage at Albemarle, said the law helped revive an industry battered by globalization and a weak market for lithium products in the United States.

“If you get a form of policy that says we all want you to build and there’s money in it for you, then you’ve ignored the risk,” Mr Norris said. “It’s a way to compete globally in an industry that, frankly, we haven’t invested as much in or paid as much attention to.”

He added: “You know the story – China has been paying a lot of attention.”

Albemarle received about $250 million in federal subsidies last year, some of which came from Inflation Reduction Act funds, to promote domestic lithium production. It is one of several companies in North Carolina that are rapidly accelerating operations to extract and process lithium, which is essential to flow electricity in a battery that can be sold to automakers.

While progress has been made in expanding North Carolina’s lithium industry, there are numerous obstacles when it comes to permitting and the pace of approvals producers need to move forward with their plans. Political opposition to electric vehicles, often fueled by Republicans including former President Donald J. Trump, is also creating headwinds.

Albemarle has waged an extensive community campaign to confront concerns about its mine proposal. This included town hall meetings, regular public tours of the site and a dedicated office in a converted pharmacy where residents can go to ask questions. However, even if the permitting process goes smoothly, the company does not expect the mine to be operational before 2027 or 2028.

In North Carolina’s Gaston County, Piedmont Lithium has struggled to win the support of local officials who oversee zoning for the Carolina Lithium project. The company expects it can produce 30,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium per year once the mine and processing plants are operational. It plans to hire 500 employees with an average salary of more than $80,000 per year.

“We see ourselves as one of the pioneers of what skilled labor employment can offer people in terms of wage opportunities,” said Patrick H. Brindle, Piedmont’s Chief Operating Officer.

But many residents remain skeptical about what a mine will mean for their community. At a Gaston County Board of Commissioners meeting in August, homeowners raised concerns about traffic and noise associated with the mine and expressed fears about toxic chemicals infiltrating the water system.

“Why should I be financially devastated so they can make billions of dollars?” asked Sandra Foster, whose home is near the proposed mine.

Electric vehicles are intended to reduce carbon emissions and improve environmental health, but in many of the projects across the country, local officials are concerned about the short-term environmental risks posed by the transition.

Chad Brown, board member, said there is no certainty Piedmont will get its permits, noting the community is “in the fight.”

“Everyone is concerned about the environment,” Mr Brown said.

The challenges have been compounded by the fact that the transition to clean energy technology has been the subject of political backlash from many Republican lawmakers.

Last year, North Carolina State Representative Ben Moss, a Republican, legislation introduced that would ban free chargers for electric vehicles unless free gas pumps are made available at the same location.

However, other Republican lawmakers, such as Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, have supported a revival of lithium mining in the state. The state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, has said the environment needs to be protected, but having a mine that can provide raw materials for electric vehicle batteries is a positive development.

And local officials may ultimately resent turning away thousands of new, well-paying jobs.

“My feeling is that the potential benefits of this will be great enough that all these political considerations will take a back seat,” he said. Mark Curtis, an economics professor at Wake Forest University who researches green energy jobs. “It’s about how you minimize the costs that these local communities face.”