While it may never replace Minnesota's leading mineral resource -- iron ore -- exploration for lithium is under way in the state to determine whether sufficient amounts exist to warrant commercial consideration.
"For the most part, we haven't found anything yet," Andrea Reed, a mineral resource geologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and leader of the agency's lithium project, said Monday in an interview.
"We just started last year. We got the go-ahead last year to get the program going."
But while the mineral, increasingly prized for battery production, has so far been elusive, that does not mean it does not exist in Minnesota. In fact, there is good reason to think it does.
DNR knows "there is a little bit of lithium in Lake of the Woods County, up in the area called the Northwest Angle," the agency says on a newly created website devoted to its lithium exploration.
In fact, the Northwest Angle probably is not the only place where lithium naturally occurs in Minnesota, the agency says. "Minnesota has the right kinds of geology to find lithium in granitic pegmatites, brines and in clays."
The state even has a group of rocks called the Quetico Subprovince, which crosses the border into Ontario, Canada. In Ontario, the Quetico is known to have lithium deposits in granitic pegmatites.
While interpretations of rock samples obtained during the ongoing pilot study continue, "I can tell you right now, at least for the pilot study, it's not economically feasible" to launch a commercial lithium extraction process in Minnesota, Reed said.
The study is expected to be concluded by the end of this year, but if her supervisors at DNR concur, the state's lithium exploration/analysis could continue in 2018 and beyond.
"Nobody has explored for lithium in Minnesota," Reed said. "We know it exists in trace amounts and there is good geology for it to exist in larger amounts." And with lithium currently selling for nearly $20,000/st, the potential economic benefits are too enticing to ignore.
As DNR noted, royalties and rentals on state-managed mineral rights contribute a significant amount to the Public School Trust, the University Trust and the state's general fund, as well as to local communities.
In addition to battery production, lithium has been used for years in ceramics, glass, lubricants, refining metals during the casting process, creating lightweight metals for airplanes and space vehicles and medications.
