The area around California’s Salton Sea is incredibly rich in lithium — enough to support over 375 million electric vehicle batteries. A new mine, dubbed Hell’s Kitchen, plans to tap this vast mineral wealth. Once completed, it will be among the largest lithium producers in the world. Hell’s Kitchen is one of several new mines that have been fast-tracked by the U.S. federal government as part of an ongoing push to scale up domestic critical mineral supplies. Demand for these minerals — which include lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements and others — is surging both in the U.S. and globally, in part thanks to the rise of clean energy technologies like electric vehicles, utility-scale energy storage and solar panels. This rising need is rapidly outpacing U.S. production, meaning the country will have to both increase imports and scale domestic mining in the coming years.
New Era of US Mineral Mining Must Put Communities First | World Resources Institute
