Drag to turn the globe

Events/Invention · 1966

Lithium brine production begins at Clayton Valley

Invention, 1938 Searles Lake; 1966 Clayton Valley, United States.

What happened

USGS says the earliest lithium production from brine was in 1938 as a by-product at Searles Lake, California. The larger Clayton Valley deposit in Nevada began production in 1966.1,2

Why it matters

Brine is now the main source of lithium.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Lithium brine production begins at Clayton Valley

    Brine is now the main source of lithium.1,2

  2. Greenbushes lithium production begins

    Greenbushes is still a major lithium mine in the WA profile for 2023, with 51 per cent of State lithium output.3,4,5,6

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inSilver PeakClayton Valley brine began production in 1966. Albemarle has run Silver Peak since.7ExamplesThacker PassNevada's lithium story runs from Clayton Valley brine in 1966 to a clay project.1

Deposit types

An example ofLithium brine (salar)Brine is now the main source of lithium.1

Sources

  1. Lithium, Professional Paper 1802-K US Geological Survey
  2. Silver Peak (item Q3709766), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Tin (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  4. About Talison Lithium
  5. WA Battery and Critical Minerals Profile, March 2024 Western Australian Treasury Corporation
  6. Greenbushes (item Q1826852), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 Albemarle Corporation (SEC)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

History of miningThe new rush: lithium, cobalt and rare earths1888-2025The Super Pit gold mine at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, at sunsetMining historyGold rushes, then and nowGold and lithium · WorldwideThe world runs on rockThe RocketThe metals that survive launchLessons from historyBooms and busts: what mining history shows1859-2025

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).