The previous year, 3,300 tons came in. The year before that, in 2023, the United States imported more than 3,700 tons.

The international appetite for lithium has been growing year after year. In 2025, global production increased 31 percent from 2024. The previous year, it increased by 18 percent. U.S. demand has been no different. It, too, has been growing from year to year.

America imports most of the lithium it uses, almost all of it originating from Argentina and Chile. But lithium must be processed and refined before it can be used, and China dominates the market when it comes to lithium refining. According to the Australian energy news outlet Discovery Alert, "China controls more than 60% of global lithium processing capacity, creating downstream dependency despite upstream sourcing from South America."

New Discovery

But a recent discovery may help drastically reduce, perhaps completely eliminate, America's dependence on foreign suppliers for this critical element, which is used to make batteries for computers, smartphones, data centers, electric vehicles, and military equipment. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced last week that it discovered enough lithium in the Appalachian mountains to "replace 328 years of U.S. imports." According to the USGS, the Southern Appalachian mountains, particularly those in the Carolinas, hold more than 1.5 million tons of lithium. The northern part of the ranges, those in Maine and New Hampshire, has nearly one million tons of lithium.

This is a big deal for mineral independence. USGS Director Ned Mamula noted, "This research shows that the Appalachians contain enough lithium to help meet the nation's growing needs — a major contribution to U.S. mineral security, at a time when global lithium demand is rising rapidly." The USGS said this is enough lithium to produce 1.6 million grid-scale batteries large enough to stabilize an electric grid, a 1,000-year supply of laptops for the entire world, or 500 billion smartphones.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the discovery means "being able to reduce our reliance on foreign sources," including China. "Critical minerals, rare earth — from extraction through processing — needs to be ramped up inside the United States," said Zeldin. "You hear a lot about unleashing energy dominance. We also care about batteries and magnets and chips and semiconductors. When we have these resources within our own country, we should not only be extracting them here — we should be processing them here.… This was a great find."