Arkansas may be sitting on 19 million tons of lithium [Video]

Researchers now estimate how much “white gold” may be found in southern Arkansas’s vast lithium reserves: up to 19 million tons, or enough to meet the projected 2030 world demand nine times over.

United States Geological Survey (USGS) researchers used water testing and machine learning to get an estimate of what might be found in an underground brine in the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas, a relic of an ancient sea that is now a vast limestone formation that stretches from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and into Florida. The researchers announced that it could contain anywhere from 5 million to 19 million tons of lithium.

“If commercially recoverable, the amount of lithium present would meet projected 2030 world demand for lithium in car batteries nine times over,” the researchers said in a news release.

Published in the journal Science Advances, the study cites that the lithium found in southern Arkansas could make up to 36% to 136% of …