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A Year’s Worth of Resources in British Columbia

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A Year’s Worth of Resources in British Columbia

Earlier this month, we created a slideshow visualizing the amount of metal and oil extracted globally with famous landmarks and cities.

We’ve received numerous requests from folks in our hometown of Vancouver, BC to show how much resources are extracted in British Columbia. As you can see in the above slideshow, we have covered gold, silver, zinc, molybdenum, copper, lead, metallurgical coal, and even wood products.

It surprises many British Columbians that one of the most valuable resources is met coal, which is not used for power generation but to produce steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, and the carbon comes from the metallurgical coal. In fact, 70% of steel worldwide is made this way.

Also surprising is that less than 1m cubed of gold is produced in BC each year. This may change soon with some of the many projects that may eventually go into production, but for now it remains quite low and rare in BC.

To us, one thing is clear: BC is a beautiful and resource-rich province. We at Visual Capitalist hope that companies learn from the tragic events of Mt. Polley this summer and are able to start building and maintaining mining projects that far exceed expectations for safety and environmental stewardship.

Special kudos to PwC for providing most of the information in their latest Digging Deeper report. (Note: some cube sizes were estimated in size based on value of commodity shipped and avg. 2013 commodity prices)

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Mining

White Gold: Mapping U.S. Lithium Mines

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist partnerered with EnergyX to explore the size and location of U.S. lithium mines.

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Teaser graphic of a map that shows the sizes of the top U.S. lithium mines.

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The following content is sponsored by EnergyX

White Gold: Mapping U.S. Lithium Mines

The U.S. doubled imports of lithium-ion batteries for the third consecutive year in 2022, and with EV demand growing yearly, U.S. lithium mines must ramp up production or rely on other nations for their supply of refined lithium.

To determine if the domestic U.S. lithium opportunity can meet demand, we partnered with EnergyX to determine how much lithium sits within U.S. borders. 

U.S. Lithium Projects

The most crucial measure of a lithium mine’s potential is the quantity that can be extracted from the source.

For each lithium resource, the potential volume of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) was calculated with a ratio of one metric ton of lithium producing 5.32 metric tons of LCE. Cumulatively, existing U.S. lithium projects contain 94.8 million metric tons of LCE.

RankProject NameLCE, million metric tons (est.)
1McDermitt Caldera21.5
2Thacker Pass19.1
3Tonopah Flats18.0
4TLC Lithium10.7
5Clayton Valley (Century Lithium)6.3
6Zeus Lithium6.3
7Rhyolite Ridge3.4
8Arkansas Smackover (Phase 1A)2.8
9Basin Project2.2
10McGee Deposit2.1
11Arkansas Smackover (South West)1.8
12Clayton Valley (Lithium-X, Pure Energy)0.8
13Big Sandy0.3
14Imperial Valley/Salton Sea0.3

U.S. Lithium Opportunities, By State

U.S. lithium projects mainly exist in western states, with comparatively minor opportunities in central or eastern states.

StateLCE, million metric tons (est.)
Nevada88.2
Arkansas4.6
Arizona2.5
California0.3

Currently, the U.S. is sitting on a wealth of lithium that it is underutilizing. For context, in 2022, the U.S. only produced about 5,000 metric tons of LCE and imported a projected 19,000 metric tons of LCE, showing that the demand for the mineral is healthy.  

The Next Gold Rush?

U.S. lithium companies have the opportunity to become global leaders in lithium production and accelerate the transition to sustainable energy sources. This is particularly important as the demand for lithium is increasing every year.

EnergyX is on a mission to meet U.S. lithium demands using groundbreaking technology that can extract 300% more lithium from a source than traditional methods.

You can take advantage of this opportunity by investing in EnergyX and joining other significant players like GM in becoming a shareholder.

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