(The Center Square) – The only operational lithium mine in the U.S., Silver Peak in Nevada’s Esmeralda County, could double its production with a recently approved expansion, including into some public lands.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced the expansion approval Friday as speculation around the state’s potential lithium mining industry boom continues to grow louder.
“The Bureau of Land Management has approved expansion of the existing Silver Peak lithium mine near Silver Peak in Esmeralda County,” read the BLM’s announcement. “The mine is now authorized to operate on 8,058 total acres, including 1,601 public acres.”
The mine sits alongside the roughly 250 person town of Silver Peak and has been in operation since 1965 by international mining company Albemarle. It pumps water from local brine water aquifers into open air ponds, then distills the lithium down with solar evaporation. Annually, the mine produces around 5,000 tons of lithium, according to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
“I don’t have any issues with the expansion of the mine,” Shaaron Netherton, executive director of the Friends of Nevada Wilderness, told The Center Square of the mine, which employs roughly 60 people. She added later, “It’s sort of the lifeblood of the little town of Silver Peak.”
Netherton also said that the environmental disruption to the Silver Peak area had already been done over the mine’s past 60 years of operation, which would likely see minimal new damage from the expansion.
The Silver Peak mine expansion has been billed as a matter of national security, with less than 1% of global lithium production coming from within the U.S., according to the Dallas Fed.
The industry around lithium, which is used in many rechargeable batteries such as those used in cars, is dominated across all stages by China and, to a lesser extent, Australia. Recent moves by the U.S. government, such as the Department of Energy’s 5% purchase of Lithium Americas in 2025, indicate a desire to enter the lithium space, even as the material’s price has sharply declined since a peak in 2023, according to the Dallas Fed.
“As the only active lithium mine in the United States, Silver Peak remains an essential asset for America’s domestic lithium supply chain,” an Albemarle spokesperson wrote to The Center Square in an email. “Federal approval of this project supports Albemarle’s efforts to expand the facility’s production capacity and enhance efficiency.”
At the same time as Silver Peak expands, new lithium mines are getting set to open up across the Silver State.
The Thacker Pass site overseen by Lithium Americas, and controversially located on the lands of an Indigenous massacre, is expected to produce more than 40,000 tons of lithium annually. Proponents have said the project, among others, could usher in a new age of mining in the state, deemed a “Unique opportunity to build a secure, resilient North American lithium supply chain,” by the company.
