Oil was a critical resource we were running out of, until we were not running out. Same with Lithium.
Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
And then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground come a bubblin crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
I was eight years old in third grade when the 1973 Arab oil embargo struck. Gasoline was surging to ¢.36 a gallon (around $2.90 today), it was painful. The “smart people” in the class were discussing how we’re out of oil. Soon we would be back to horse and buggy for transportation. Thank God two things prevented that.
First, on day one of his administration, Ronald Reagan deregulated the oil industry. Jimmy Carter famously said, “We will all need to use less energy, and pay more for it.” No, we didn’t, we have enormous supplies in America. Rawhide knew it and if you let the oil companies get to it, the market would set a price the consumer could afford.
Initially oil prices, as well as gasoline, did rise. But by the end of 1981, prices dropped as more crude was brought onto the market. We had stable supplies and market prices for decades.
Fast forward to 2009, the Obama regime’s goal was to increase prices (i.e., inflict financial pain) till Americans had no choice but to switch to battery vehicles. His first Secretary of (no) Energy, Steven Chu, openly called for US gas prices to be the same as Europe. At the time, eight to nine dollars a gallon. Thankfully, the American oil industry came to the rescue.
Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) traces its history to the end of the Civil War. The technology continued to evolve over the decades till it became economical in the early 2000s. Fracking got us access to oil and natural gas enclosed in rock for eternity. The fact it was mainly developed on private lands where Obama had limited ability to stop it (he did try) insured it would continue.
Energy prices dropped after 2012 as more oil was produced. Fracking broke OPEC as Saudi Arabia was unable to throttle oil production to keep prices high. Additionally, the drop in natural gas prices induced many electricity companies to replace retiring coal plants with gas, producing power with less pollution. The US is again a net exporter of oil (as of 2020) and natural gas (since 2016).
Technology and the market brought us what politicians said we could not have. Here is a more recent example. Rare earth minerals (e.g., bastnäsite, monazite, xenotime, loparite, and laterite clays) have become more valuable for modern technology over the last few decades. China has been expanding its control over these minerals through treaty and other means. Until recently the US has not been so assertive. But again, technology is helping us with this need.
Lithium is one of the critical rare earth minerals we need, especially for batteries. China at this moment controls over 70% of the world’s lithium. Beijing provides almost 20% of our imported lithium. But now, as with oil and natural gas, American ingenuity comes to the rescue. From Legal Insurrection:
Arkansas’ Lithium Jackpot: New Tech Turns Ancient Saltwater Into ‘White Gold’
“We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace US imports of lithium and more.”
Tucked beneath the pine forests and farm fields of southwest Arkansas, drillers have stumbled upon a critical mineral jackpot: lithium in the region’s ancient saltwater formations.
Last fall, the U.S. Geological Survey announced that an estimated 5 to 19 million tons of lithium are located in southwestern Arkansas. That is enough lithium to meet the world’s estimated 2030 demand for lithium nine times over.
The lithium is located in the Smackover Formation, a geological formation created by an ancient sea that extends across southwest Arkansas and several neighboring states. Back in the 1920s, oil was discovered in the Smackover Formation, setting off a boom in southern Arkansas.
The Smackover Formation is a deep (roughly 8,000–10,000 feet) carbonate aquifer that has been tapped for decades for oil, gas, and bromine-bearing brines, resulting in extensive existing subsurface data and infrastructure. Recent technological developments now enable the U.S. to tap previously unusable brines to extract lithium, a key component of batteries, pharmaceuticals, glass, ceramics, and military equipment.
Now, with the development of the new Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) process, this quiet corner of the South is suddenly staring at an economic bonanza…
…Using DLE, miners will soon be able to pull out lithium-rich saltwater from underground reservoirs in Arkansas, filter out the minerals, and return the processed groundwater to the Earth within 24 hours.
The 2024 estimate of 19 million tons of lithium in the Smackover Formation would be enough to erase the nation’s current dependence on China…
In DLE, lithium‑rich brine from reservoirs, oilfield water, or geothermal fluids is first pretreated to remove impurities, then passed through lithium‑selective media that capture Li⁺ while most other ions remain in the brine. Then the lithium is stripped into a concentrated solution (often lithium chloride) and further processed into battery‑grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide. Unused brine is typically reinjected underground.
The entire process enables faster production (hours to days), higher recoveries, and a smaller land and water footprint compared with conventional methods…
…The project promises economic benefits for South Arkansas, including new high-skilled jobs, major investments in rural communities, and growth for local businesses. Standard Lithium is also negotiating up to $1 billion in project financing with international lenders and export credit agencies.
Ultimately, what is happening in Smackover feels less like a regional development project and more like a distinctly American magic trick: turning salt water into the modern world’s version of gold.
Engineers and chemists are stitching together advanced membranes, custom sorbents, and real‑time controls in a high‑tech update of the old oil patch, proving that the same ingenuity that once fueled the petroleum age can now power the battery age…
Going back to the article, the new source is ancient saltwater formations in Arkansas. That’s not the only source in the US. From ScienceAlert, we have over a half dozen states with these formations. We can obtain this mineral without the strip mines of the third world, providing countless high paying jobs for Americans, as opposed to child labor overseas.
A critical need was identified, and people came up with a solution. They didn’t need a UN high commission or multiple congressional committees reviewing this matter. Money was there to be made, people figured out how to make it, here is a solution. Hopefully we can keep the government from screwing this up.
Politicians, bureaucrats, college professors and other over glorified oxygen thieves needs to remember the wisdom of a great American leader, General George Patton. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” American ingenuity has risen to our needs again.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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