this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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Buried beneath an ancient volcanic crater on the Nevada Oregon border sits an enormous deposit of lithium rich clay. Scientists now think this quiet landscape may hold enough lithium to influence the global battery market for decades.

A new study argues that McDermitt caldera may host about 20 to 40 million metric tons of lithium, likely the largest deposit yet identified.

Using the recent United States’ average contract price for lithium carbonate, about 37,000 dollars per ton, that estimate comes out to be nearly $1.5 trillion.

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[–] aramis87@fedia.io 43 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Sure, go digging around the supervolcano, that can only end well ...

[–] diverging@piefed.social 31 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

The volcano now is about 400 miles away, in Yellowstone, so there shouldn't be a problem with that. And no, the volcano did not move, the continent did.

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago

I've played so many mining video games just give me an industrialized mega sized 3d printer, couple million dollars and I'll be set for life with that mine untouched.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

There's almost nothing humanity could do that would actually impact the world in a way that could even make a dormant supervolcano so much as fart.

[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 32 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Well there goes the US’s chances of being a player in the sodium ion battery race. Our gov won’t support technological advancement while some rich fuck can milk an extant cash cow.

I mean we’ll still need lithium to transportation for its energy:weight properties but still. Hopefully this turns out to be a good thing.

Any bets on whether Musk or an oil company is gonna get the first subsidies to start a mine there?

Sorry for being a downer. I’ve been in a mood this year.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

America has bowed out of any actual tech race decades ago when capital decided to go for get-rich-quick schemes by deregulating instead of investing in domestic production. The only thing the US had any kind of edge on was AI and that's just a bubble that's going to get out-inflated by China.

We could have done FINE on a service economy, importing raw materials and textiles and tech from other countries and assembling, packaging and marketing it here. We could have built an entire NATION of white-collar workers managing tech companies like this. The whole right-wing "we have to bring coal mining and steel milling back to the US" was pure, pandering bullshit meant to appeal to the country's midwits who have no idea how the wider world or technology works.

But we're not only not going that direction, we've basically slammed the door on that route. Our principle money-making now comes from investment and finance, and this weird, world's-largest-ponzie-scheme where private equity is just going around gobbling up smaller businesses and putting them out of business to manipulate markets and force market direction. Nothing in the US is real, nothing is built on anything. Or at least that's how it will be. We still export shit like fuel corn and soybeans... somewhat.

You can read history and see how this has repeated over and over when there's an authoritarian/fascist takeover, back to the age of barbarians. They don't want to inherit their conquered nation's complex infrastructure and problems, they want to sell off anything cheap and easy to make a dime on before ditching the place and living somewhere disconnected from the raped land they've left behind. Things like natural resources like oil, coal, easy-to-access minerals and guns and other easy-to-make hardware for war. This is what happened to a lot of other countries and why some places are utter shitholes now.

[–] VoodooAardvark@lemmy.zip 29 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Anyone who lived through the 90s knows that natural disaster movies were as prolific as super hero movies have been for the last 20 years… and Pierce Brosnan is too old to save us from another volcano

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Linda Hamilton was kick-ass in the latest Terminator movie. I bet she can still get shit done.

[–] not_me@piefed.social 16 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Lithium can be found everywhere , its bait

[–] Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 8 hours ago

I have a bunch in my house

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Likely. Claiming to have resources is a new "get rich quick" scam meant to drive investments in one direction or another. Russia just claimed to have found a bajillion kajillion barrels of oil under antarctica, which is soooo convenient that they find it in an area with international claim and where it's really, really hard to verify 🙄

[–] thefluffiest@feddit.nl 11 points 19 hours ago

Great news for Americans’ mental health

[–] ElectricAirship@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I have been to McDermitt a few times... It's a very interesting place for amateur geologists bc of the abundance of different gemstones.

It is a beautiful desert biome as well.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 19 points 19 hours ago

Not for long. Capitalists about to do more stripping in that caldera than your mom does on Tuesday nights down at the Beaver Barn.

[–] hark@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago

Gonna hafta blow it to get all the lithium out.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

So goodbye Yellowstone.

Hey wait a second this is the plot of Project Wingman

[–] GaryGhost@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Apparently the lithium is very shallow and so I hope this means that we wouldn't cause an active super volcano. They are worried about changes to the landscape but what about pollution? I guess that depends on where they process the lithium. Also why would anyone think they have claim to the deposit when the government wants it?

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

This gives me an idea.

  • Buy a ton of lithium
  • Buy a plot of land with no good use
  • Bury a ton of lithium in spots that look like they would be good sample sites
  • Wait 5-10 years for nature to erase any previous digging activities
  • Find some company to survey the land and then sell the land to someone for a ton of profit
[–] ErrorCode@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Wasn't that the basic plot of a Gilligan's Island episode (except with oil)?

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Is it? I haven't watched all of the Gilligan's island episodes, I don't think I have seen more than a couple.

Which episode was it?

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 44 minutes ago)

so I hope this means that we wouldn’t cause an active super volcano.

There is almost nothing we could do short of apocalyptic nuclear demolition charges in very strategic places that could possibly trigger a supervolcano, and even then I doubt we could do more than create some kind of vent that would reduce the chances of a supervolcano.

The article is really poorly written and has nothing to do with any volcanoes, at least not current ones. Saying it's in an ancient caldera is like saying something was "found in rock that was once beneath the mantle" or some such sloppy, forced sensationalism.

Also why would anyone think they have claim to the deposit when the government wants it?

They want to get bought out by someone else. Government buys land from citizens all the time when they want something bad enough. It's a bit of a gamble though because the government is far more likely to find a "loophole" which lets them take what they want without spending a dime than if you are just starting a tech company and hoping Google or OpenAI will buy you out. But they might be hoping to play the lithium market in some way.

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

That's not how market cap works.