2026 is shaping up to be a hot year for lithium. The metal, sometimes called silver because of skyrocketing demand for the commodity, is essential in all forms of technology and clean energy production. You probably have at least one lithium-ion battery on hand at this point in your phone or smartwatch or other rechargeable device.
And while lithium prices have been volatile for years as producers struggle to match production with demand growth, they are now on the rise. “What happens could have major implications for mining and battery technology,” MIT Technology Review reports. High lithium prices mean there will be a resurgence in the global race to mine, with major implications for global geopolitics.
Currently, China dominates the world’s lithium supply chain. Beijing controls about 72 percent of the world’s lithium-ion market, and Chinese companies control a quarter of the world’s lithium mining capacity. Even more exciting, by 2024, more than 80 percent of battery cells on the planet will be made in China, raising major questions and concerns about geopolitical risk and market flexibility in technology supply chains.
The United States has been seeking to reduce its reliance on Chinese lithium and partner with its own supply chains for years, but building business relationships with major lithium producers in South America has proven difficult. Rising lithium prices will make it more feasible and valuable for companies outside of China to start their own mining operations and diversify the global market, opening up a new opportunity for the North American lithium boom.
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The US is home to a significant supply of lithium, it’s just a matter of building a domestic industry around the extraction and processing of the metal. Currently, there is only one operating lithium mine in the United States, a silver mine in Esmeralda County, Nevada. But that could change quickly as the Trump administration and the domestic sector rush to build a US-based lithium industry.
This goal could soon completely transform Northeast Texas, which sits on a large natural reserve of silver. The Dallas Morning News reported this week: “The Smackover Formation, which stretches widely from East Texas to Florida and was once laced with oil, is now defined as some of the purest lithium brine in the world.”
