Hydrothermal enrichment of lithium in intracaldera illite-bearing claystones
Open accessAbstract
Developing a sustainable supply chain for the global proliferation of lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles and grid storage necessitates the extraction of lithium resources that minimize local environmental impacts. Volcano sedimentary lithium resources have the potential to meet this requirement, as they tend to be shallow, high-tonnage deposits with low waste:ore strip ratios. Illite-bearing Miocene lacustrine sediments within the southern portion of McDermitt caldera (USA) at Thacker Pass contain extremely high lithium grades (up to ~1 weight % of Li), more than double the whole-rock concentration of lithium in smectite-rich claystones in the caldera and other known claystone lithium resources globally (<0.4 weight % of Li). Illite concentrations measured in situ range from ~1.3 to 2.4 weight % of Li within fluorine-rich illitic claystones. The unique lithium enrichment of illite at Thacker Pass resulted from secondary lithium- and fluorine-bearing hydrothermal alteration of primary neoformed smectite-bearing sediments, a phenomenon not previously identified.
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The lithium in Thacker Pass, the largest reserve in North America, is in clay.
“However, the lithium in Thacker Pass, the largest reserve in North America, is in clay [54].”
From Lithium Supply Chain Optimization: A Global Analysis of Critical Minerals for Batteries (2024) · cites this paper as [54]
The Results section (page unavailable) reports lithium in Thacker Pass illite clay and no measurable lithium in the nonclay minerals tested. The Introduction (page unavailable) gives a resource estimate for Thacker Pass but does not establish that it is the largest lithium reserve in North America; it describes measured and indicated resources, not reserves. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Research works printed but not linked: 9
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Balaram, V., Santosh, M., Satyanarayanan, M., Srinivas, N., & Gupta, H. (2024) · Geoscience Frontiers · doi:10.1016/j.gsf.2024.101868 · Cited by 231 · see citing works
Lithium Supply Chain Optimization: A Global Analysis of Critical Minerals for Batteries
Jones, E. C. (2024) · Energies · doi:10.3390/en17112685 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
- Authors
- Benson, T. R., Coble, M. A., & Dilles, J. H.
- Affiliations
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (US)
- GNS Science (NZ)
- Oregon State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Benson, Thomas R.
- Venue
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2023-09
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 35
- Pages
- eadh8183-eadh8183
- ISSN
- 2375-2548 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10468124
- OpenAlex
- W4386276952
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 47 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 23.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Science Advances (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geophysics › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping
- Keywords
- lithium enrichment, illite, claystone, hydrothermal alteration, smectite, fluorine, lithium-ion batteries, lithium recovery
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