Evaluating machine learning approaches to identify and predict oil and gas produced water lithium concentrations
Emil Attanasi, Bonnie McDevitt, Philip A. Freeman, Timothy Coburn
2026, Data Science in Science (5)
Recently, the demand for battery-grade lithium has substantially increased, largely due to electrification of the transportation sector. The search for new lithium sources has turned to produced waters (frequently brines), a large-volume wastewater by-product of oil and gas extraction. Geochemical analysis indicates the presence of varying concentrations of lithium from...
Decadal trends and occurrence of geogenic constituents and mixtures in groundwater across the continental United States
Melinda L. Erickson, Sarah M. Elliott, MaryLynn Musgrove, Elise Danica Hinman, Margaux Jeanne Sleckman, Sarah M. Stackpoole, Bruce D. Lindsey
2026, Environmental Science and Technology - Water (6) 664-678
Worldwide, about 50% of the population is served by groundwater-sourced drinking water. Numerous groundwater quality assessments have found that geogenic constituents are among the most common contaminants in drinking-water aquifers. Documenting changing groundwater quality is a crucial aspect of water availability assessments. We assess trends and occurrence of geogenic constituent...
Potential for co-production of lithium and geothermal resources in the Gulf Coast
Rand Gardner, Justin E. Birdwell
2025, Conference Paper, Using the Earth to save the Earth
Lithium brine extractions and geothermal resource developments often are not economically viable as standalone projects, but they May become cost effective when the potential for both resources exist within the same reservoir. Subsurface datasets were analyzed to identify areas in the U.S. Gulf Coast region with potential for lithium brine...
Pre- and post-eruptive geochemical and isotopic fingerprints of rhyolites parental to volcano-sedimentary lithium brine and clay resources in the western USA & central Andes
Celestine N. Mercer, Regina Marie Khoury, Julie Roberge, Madison Myers
2025, Conference Paper
Lithium is a high-demand, critical element used not only in lightweight rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but also in nuclear applications and industries producing ceramics, aluminum, and medical products. It is extracted primarily from pegmatites and volcano-sedimentary brines and clays in arid, closed lacustrine or caldera basins. Lithium brines of the central...
USGS addresses needs for lithium calibration and quality control materials for pLIBS analysis
A. Rae Ann Orkild-Norton, Katharina I. Pfaff, John Michael Meyer, Carolyn Cantwell, Erica Key
2025, Conference Paper
Lithium (Li) is a globally important commodity used for energy storage, national defense, human health, and advanced technologies. Lithium resource development requires identifying deposits with elevated concentrations and optimal mineralogy, typically associated with select clays and pegmatites. Lithium is a light, highly reactive alkali metal with low atomic mass that is...
Quantitative mineral resource assessment of lithium pegmatite deposits in the Appalachian Orogen, USA
Niki E. Wintzer, Joshua Mark Rosera, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, Dalton M. McCaffrey, Kelsey Elizabeth Crocker, Joshua Aaron Coyan, Graham W. Lederer
2025, Conference Paper
Lithium is classified as a U.S. critical mineral commodity, and its demand is projected to drastically increase through 2040, driven by electric vehicle production and energy storage applications (IEA 2021).Most global lithium production is not in the United States increasing vulnerability to a supply disruption. The U.S. Geological Survey is...
Airborne geophysics for geologic mapping of critical mineral systems in the United States southern midcontinent
Chelsea Morgan Amaral, Anne E. McCafferty, Dylan Mark Connell
2025, Conference Paper, Geologic Mapping Forum 24/24 abstracts
The increased demand for clean energy technology and a significant reliance on foreign supply chains have given impetus to understanding critical mineral systems and locating potential resources within the United States. At least thirteen critical mineral-bearing systems have been identified throughout the U.S. southern Midcontinent (Hofstra and Kreiner, 2020) but...
Variable partitioning of lithium in rhyolitic melt during decompression and ascent
Madison Myers, Roberta Spallanzani, Darin Schwartz, Celestine N. Mercer, Behnaz Hosseini
2025, Economic Geology (120) 1191-1206
The partitioning behavior of Li in magmatic systems is increasingly being investigated due to the economic importance of Li in the transition to sustainable energy resources (e.g., batteries). However, at upper crustal pressures, it remains uncertain whether Li preferentially partitions into the vapor or liquid (brine) phase or remains in the...
Stable isotope reference materials and scale definitions – Outcomes of the 2024 IAEA experts meeting
Federica Camin, Dinka Besic, Paul J. Brewer, Colin E Allison, Tyler B. Coplen, Philip J.H. Dunn, Matthias Gehre, Manfred Gröning, Harro A.J. Meijer, Jean-François Hélie, Paola Iacumin, Rebecca Kraft, Bor Krajnc, Steffen Kümmel, Sangil Lee, Juris Meija, Zoltan Mester, Joachim Mohn, Heiko Moossen, Haiping Qi, Grzegorz Skrzypek, Peter Sperlich, Joelle Viallon, Leonard I. Wassenaar, Robert I. Wielgosz
2025, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry (39)
The participants of the 12th International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting on stable isotope reference materials reached a consensus, acknowledging the existence and use of two carbon isotope delta scales: the VPDB (Vienna Peedee belemnite) scale and the VPDB-LSVEC (LSVEC - lithium carbonate prepared by H. J. Svec). Conversion models between...
Anatectic origin of Mississippian spodumene-bearing pegmatites in western Maine during orogenic plateau collapse
Myles M Felch, Ian William Hillenbrand, J. Dykstra Eusden, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, Dwight C. Bradley, Amber T.H. Whittaker, Michael J. Jercinovic, Michael L. Williams, Laura Pianowski
2025, Economic Geology (120) 779-806
Spodumene pegmatites are an important lithium source, but the processes and tectonic settings in which they form are poorly understood. The Rumford pegmatite district surrounding Plumbago Mountain, western Maine, is host to numerous spodumene pegmatites, including the Plumbago North pegmatite (a world-class spodumene resource). Competing petrogenetic models for these spodumene...
Lithium from magma to mine in an early Yellowstone hotspot caldera
Kathryn E. Watts
2025, Geology (53) 592-596
Renewable energy technologies rely on the extraction of metals not historically in high demand, such as lithium (Li), for which ore deposit models are incompletely understood. One of the world’s largest Li deposits is hosted in lake sediments of the 16.4 Ma McDermitt caldera, which formed during the early stages...
World minerals outlook—Cobalt, gallium, helium, lithium, magnesium, palladium, platinum, and titanium through 2029
Elisa Alonso, Amanda Sarah Brioche, Ruth Schulte, Loyd M. Trimmer III, Ji-Eun Kim, Andrew L. Gulley, David Pineault
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5021
Given the rapid expansion in the demand for mineral commodities that underpin worldwide economic growth and technological advancement, information regarding expected country-level mine production and production capacity is becoming increasingly important to industry stakeholders, end users, and policymakers. Production capacity can limit future supply, depending on how rapidly that capacity...
Preliminary depth to basement modeling at Salton Sea, California
Jacob Elliott Anderson, Jonathan M.G. Glen, William D. Schermerhorn, Tait E. Earney, Benjamin Lyter Morbeck
2025, Conference Paper
The San Andreas Fault – Imperial Fault (SAF-IF) transtensional step-over zone along the southern margin of the Salton Sea hosts substantial geothermal production and lithium brine resources. Recent volcanism at the Salton Buttes and active seismicity along the SAFIF fault system highlight active tectonic and magmatic processes that pose natural...
Cancer risk and estimated lithium exposure in drinking groundwater in the US
Jiajun Luo, Liange Zheng, Zhihao Jin, Yuqing Yang, William I. Krakowka, Eric Hong, Melissa A. Lombard, Joseph D. Ayotte, Habibul Ahsan, Jayant M. Pinto, Briseis Aschebrook-Kilfoy
2025, JAMA Network Open (8)
Importance Lithium is a naturally occurring element in drinking water and is commonly used as a mood-stabilizing medication. Although clinical studies have reported associations between receiving lithium treatment and reduced cancer risk among patients with bipolar disorder, to our knowledge, the association between environmental lithium exposure and cancer risk has never...
Lithium resource in the Smackover Formation brines of Southern Arkansas
Katherine J. Knierim, Andrew L. Masterson, Philip A. Freeman, Bonnie McDevitt, Amanda H. Herzberg, Peng Li, Ciara Mills, Colin Doolan, Aaron M. Jubb, Scott M. Ausbrooks, Jessica Chenault
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3052
Lithium-rich brine deposits occur throughout the United States, including in the Smackover Formation. The concentration of lithium in Smackover Formation brines was predicted across southern Arkansas by using a machine-learning model that incorporated lithium concentration data and geologic information. Between 5.1 and 19.0 million metric tons of lithium are calculated...
From exploration to production: Understanding the development dynamics of lithium mining projects
Laura Buarque, Max Frenzel, Britta Bookhagen, Carolin Kresse, Michael Schmidt, Nedal T. Nassar, Elisa Alonso, Ensieh Shojaeddini, Dirk Sandmann
2024, Resources Policy (99)
Recently, there has been considerable recent controversy whether current and new lithium mines will be able to supply the rapidly growing needs of the electromobility transition. Mineral exploration projects are typically active for many years, and only some become operational mines. From exploration to production, the projects go through several...
Developments in African industrial minerals for renewable energy
Thomas Yager
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3029
Introduction Africa is emerging as a leading source for minerals used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles and in other renewable energy applications. New graphite, lithium, and rare-earth mines have or could be opened in African countries from 2017 through 2026.Estimates of production capacities for graphite, lithium, and rare-earth...
Produced water geochemistry from hydraulically stimulated Niobrara Formation petroleum wells: Origin of salinity and temporal perspectives on treatment and reuse
Aaron M. Jubb, Jenna L. Shelton, Bonnie McDevitt, Kaela K. Amundson, Amanda Sha Herzberg, Jessica Chenault, Andrew Laurence Masterson, Matthew S. Varonka, Glenn D. Jolly, Christina A. DeVera, Elliott P. Barnhart, Michael J. Wilkins, Madalyn S. Blondes
2024, Science of the Total Environment (955)
Produced water (i.e., a mixture of returned injection fluids and geologic formation brines) represents the largest volumetric waste stream associated with petroleum production in the United States. As such, produced water has been the focus of intense study with emphasis on understanding the...
Evaluation of the lithium resource in the Smackover Formation brines of southern Arkansas using machine learning
Katherine J. Knierim, Madalyn S. Blondes, Andrew Laurence Masterson, Philip A. Freeman, Bonnie McDevitt, Amanda Sha Herzberg, Peng Li, Ciara Mills, Colin A. Doolan, Aaron M. Jubb, Scott Ausbrooks, Jessica Chenault
2024, Science Advances (10)
Global demand for lithium, the primary component of lithium-ion batteries, greatly exceeds known supplies, and this imbalance is expected to increase as the world transitions away from fossil fuel energy sources. High concentrations of lithium in brines have been observed in the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas (>400 milligrams per...
A global assessment of SAOCOM-1 L-band stripmap data for InSAR characterization of volcanic, tectonic, cryospheric, and anthropogenic deformation
Francisco Delgado, Tara Shreve, Sven Borgstrom, Pablo Le’on-Ibanez, Joaqu’in Castillo, Michael P. Poland
2024, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (62)
SAOCOM-1 is an L-band (23.5 cm) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation made up of two satellites launched in 2018 and 2020 by Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE, Argentina). In this contribution, we present a global summary of interferometric SAR (InSAR) observations of ground deformation with SAOCOM-1 stripmap data for...
Utica/Point Pleasant brine isotopic compositions (δ7Li, δ11B, δ138Ba) elucidate mechanisms of lithium enrichment in the Appalachian Basin
Bonnie McDevitt, Travis L. Tasker, Rachel Coyte, Madalyn S. Blondes, Brian W. Stewart, Rosemary C Capo, J. Alexandra Hakala, Avner Vengosh, William D Burgos, Nathaniel R. Warner
2024, Science of the Total Environment (947)
Global Li production will require a ~500 % increase to meet 2050 projected energy storage demands. One potential source is oil and gas wastewater (i.e., produced water or brine), which naturally has high total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations, that can also be enriched in Li...
The development of China’s monopoly over cobalt battery materials
Andrew L. Gulley
2024, Mineral Economics (37) 619-631
While previous resource conflicts have often been linked to fuel minerals such as oil, future resource conflict may revolve around nonfuel minerals that enable strategic emerging technologies. During a 2010 diplomatic dispute, China reportedly blocked exports of rare earth elements to Japan, thereby leveraging China’s near-monopoly to threaten Japanese manufacturers...
Estimating price elasticity of demand for mineral commodities used in lithium-ion batteries in the face of surging demand
Ensieh Shojaeddini, Elisa Alonso, Nedal T. Nassar
2024, Resources, Conservation and Recycling (207)
The accelerating adoption of clean energy technologies is driving demand for certain mineral commodities like lithium, essential for electric vehicle batteries. Understanding the influence of the energy transition on each market requires examining their supply and demand price elasticities. However, there have only been a limited number of studies that...
Machine learning approaches to identify lithium concentration in petroleum produced waters
Emil Attanasi, Timothy Coburn, Philip A. Freeman
2024, Mineral Economics (37) 477-497
Prices for battery-grade lithium have increased substantially since 2020, which is propelling the search for additional sources of this important element. Battery-grade lithium is predominately recovered from continental brines. Most crude oil and natural gas wells recover briny formation water, which may represent an additional source. Chemical analysis of these...
Estimating lithium concentrations in groundwater used as drinking water for the conterminous United States
Melissa A. Lombard, Eric E. Brown, Daniel Saftner, Monica M. Arienzo, Esme Fuller-Thomson, Craig J. Brown, Joseph D. Ayotte
2024, Environmental Science and Technology (58) 1255-1264
Lithium (Li) concentrations in drinking-water supplies are not regulated in the United States; however, Li is included in the 2022 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency list of unregulated contaminants for monitoring by public water systems. Li is used pharmaceutically to treat bipolar disorder, and studies have linked its occurrence in drinking...
