Nevada lithium mines
Nevada has the only lithium operation producing in the United States, and the country's biggest new lithium mine is being built there. It also has the widest range of deposit types anywhere: brine, clay and lithium-boron sediment.
Nevada's one producing lithium operation is Albemarle's Silver Peak, pumping brine in Clayton Valley since 1966. Thacker Pass (Lithium Americas and General Motors), a claystone mine in Humboldt County, is under construction, with phase 1 mechanical completion targeted for late 2027. Rhyolite Ridge (ioneer) has its federal permit and is seeking financing.
Map of Nevada lithium mines and projects
Filter by stage, then hover or tap a site. The big three are Silver Peak and Rhyolite Ridge in Esmeralda County, and Thacker Pass near the Oregon line.
Silver Peak: the only producing lithium mine in the US
Albemarle's Silver Peak operation sits in Clayton Valley, a closed desert basin south-west of Tonopah. Wells pump lithium-rich brine from several aquifers into a chain of evaporation ponds; as the water evaporates over months, the brine turns from blue to green and the lithium concentrates, until it is processed on site into lithium carbonate. It has run since 1966 and the company has worked to double its output. Some of its carbonate goes to Albemarle's plant at Kings Mountain in North Carolina.
Thacker Pass: the biggest new lithium mine in the US
Thacker Pass lies in the McDermitt caldera, a 16-million-year-old supervolcano whose lake clays hold one of the largest known lithium resources in the US. Lithium Americas (62%) and General Motors (38%) are building an open-pit clay mine and a plant that leaches the clay with sulfuric acid, made on site by burning sulfur, and turns out battery-grade lithium carbonate.
- Phase 1: 40,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate; a second phase would double it.
- Timing: construction started in March 2023; mechanical completion is targeted for late 2027, with ramp-up through 2028.
- Money: a $2.26 billion Department of Energy loan, GM's equity and offtake (up to all of phase 1 for 20 years), and 2026 capital spending of $1.3 to $1.6 billion.
- Opposition: ranchers, conservation groups and Paiute and Shoshone tribes, for whom the pass (Peehee Mu'huh) is a sacred site, challenged the federal approval; the courts upheld it in 2023.
Rhyolite Ridge and Clayton Valley
ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge is a lithium-boron deposit in sediment, so it would sell boric acid as well as lithium carbonate. The Bureau of Land Management approved it in October 2024 after the open pit was redesigned to avoid the only known population of Tiehm's buckwheat, a wildflower listed as endangered in 2022. The company is looking for a strategic partner before a final investment decision. Around Silver Peak, several juniors are drilling Clayton Valley's claystones and deeper brines.
Lithium projects held by listed companies
Projects on our globe in and around Nevada, each with its company page and latest releases:
| Project | Company | Type | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rhyolite Ridge 3D | ioneer | Lithium-boron in sediment | Development |
| McDermitt 3D | Jindalee Lithium | Claystone (Oregon, beside Nevada) | Development |
| Wilson Salt Flat | Bradda Head Lithium | Brine | Exploration |
| Eureka (Spencer claims) | Bradda Head Lithium | Claystone | Exploration |
Nevada lithium from space
Brine, clay and hard rock
Nevada is the one place where all the new kinds of lithium deposit are being developed side by side. How their footprints compare, from water to carbon, is on are lithium mines bad for the environment? The hard-rock kind, spodumene, is what North Carolina's lithium belt holds. For every country's mines, see where lithium is mined.
Questions
How many lithium mines are in Nevada?
One is producing: Albemarle's Silver Peak brine operation in Clayton Valley. Thacker Pass is under construction, Rhyolite Ridge is permitted, and dozens of claystone and brine projects are being explored.
Is Silver Peak the only lithium mine in the US?
It is the only lithium operation producing in the United States. Albemarle has pumped lithium brine there since 1966 and the US makes up less than 2% of world lithium output, almost all of it from Silver Peak (Albemarle).
When will Thacker Pass start production?
Lithium Americas targets mechanical completion of phase 1 (40,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate) in late 2027 and a ramp-up through 2028. General Motors owns 38% of the project and the US Department of Energy has lent $2.26 billion.
Why does Nevada have so much lithium?
Volcanoes and closed desert basins. Lithium leached from volcanic ash collects in caldera lake clays (Thacker Pass, McDermitt) and in the salty groundwater of valleys with no outlet (Clayton Valley).
What is Rhyolite Ridge?
ioneer's lithium-boron project in the Silver Peak Range, Esmeralda County. It received its federal approval in October 2024, after the project was redesigned around the endangered Tiehm's buckwheat, and has a US Department of Energy loan; the final investment decision is still to come.
Sources
- Albemarle: Silver Peak stands alone as a US lithium resource (February 2025)
- Lithium Americas: investors, Thacker Pass project updates
- Mining Weekly: Lithium Americas sets up to $1.6bn 2026 capex for Thacker Pass (February 2026)
- Mining Weekly: Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project update (July 2026)
- USGS: Lithium resources of the United States (Professional Paper 1802-K)
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries: lithium
Checked against the sources above on 24 October 2026.
Figures are as each source publishes them. Company output is shown as the mines report it; nothing here rates a company. Not investment advice.
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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).