Maine Compass: State must find a way to mine to Newry’s lithium deposit

Now that the election is finished, lawmakers in Washington and Augusta each face a coverage query that would impression the lives and livelihood of residents in a single nook of Maine with repercussions throughout the nation. The explanation for that may be present in Newry — a small, woodsy spot close to the New Hampshire border with a inhabitants of solely 320.

Newry is greatest often called the house to the Sunday River ski resort. Past the mountain, it’s made up principally of small farms, a couple of handmade log cabins, and a principal street that’s so bumpy it feels nearly unpaved in sections.

Items of kunzite, a wide range of the lithium-bearing crystals present in Newry, are on the market on the Rock and Artwork Store in Bar Harbor. Kate Cough photograph

However simply behind the crimson barns and never far beneath the floor of the picturesque hillsides, is a $1.5 billion query that includes the inexperienced power showdown between the U.S. and China, tons of of potential jobs, and a possible poisonous nightmare. That is all as a result of Newry is dwelling to the most important lithium deposit in the USA.

Lithium is presently essentially the most helpful laborious metallic on earth and it’s essential to the inexperienced power transition now underway. The market worth of lithium has elevated by 118% within the final yr alone. The first use of the metallic is lithium batteries, that are used to retailer inexperienced power and energy electrical vehicles. However regardless of our big want, the U.S. solely produces about 1% of the worldwide market.

Whereas we maintain many deposits, we solely have one energetic lithium mine within the nation. The truth is the majority of our lithium comes from China. With tensions working excessive between the U.S. and China, lawmakers in D.C. are involved about accessing extra of our lithium reserves. The wrestle for lithium has been acknowledged by the president, as nicely, who lately signed a invoice with $400 billion in inexperienced power and local weather funding. This lithium deposit is the most important within the nation, and options the most important crystals on the planet, and wouldn’t solely assist the nation’s lithium shortfall, however may present Maine with billions of {dollars} in financial advantages. These advantages may assist proper now. Roughly 11% of Maine’s inhabitants lives under the poverty line, and within the space round Newry, this quantity runs larger.

For an concept of potential financial outcomes let’s think about the Thacker Cross Mine in Nevada. The mine house owners are estimating they’ll create 1000 building jobs, and greater than 300 mining jobs over the projected 50 yr lifetime of the challenge. Further research advised that it has already doubled native employment and generated $225,000 in secondary financial advantages for each $1 million invested within the mine. That will imply opening a mine in Newry may create an enormous surge in high-paying jobs and tons of of tens of millions in secondary financial advantages.

However right here is the draw back: Whereas lithium can assist the transition to inexperienced power, the precise means of mining it may be very poisonous. What’s extra, Maine doesn’t look kindly on mining. Beforehand, open pit mining was a standard supply of revenue in Maine’s mineral wealthy topography. Nevertheless, through the Sixties, roughly 800,000 tons of metallic was pulled out of the earth with little environmental regulation.

Since then, in accordance with a research carried out by Dartmouth’s environmental division, there was widespread soil and water contamination. After reviewing the research, in 2017 Maine handed a ban on open pit mining that environmentalists known as the “hardest anti-mining legislation within the nation.” Since extracting lithium is a posh course of that requires open-pit work, the house owners of the land can’t proceed to mine with no change within the legislation.

The distinctive downside for lithium mining is that it requires quite a lot of contemporary water, which it then turns poisonous. Mining lithium has a use fee of two million liters of water per one ton of lithium. In a typical mine with over 11 million tons, you’re utilizing 22 trillion liters of water. The chemical substances contained in the brine introduced up from a lithium mine can leak into the encompassing water techniques, inflicting additional water loss and soil contamination. These chemical substances that leak from these swimming pools embody sulfuric acid (a corrosive substance that’s harmful to the contact) and sodium hydroxide (corrosive to all physique tissue and actually unhealthy to inhale).

So with the necessity for inexperienced power minerals and jobs on one finish of the spectrum, and environmental hazards on the opposite, the place ought to Maine find yourself? The necessity for lithium is so massive proper now, a current Worldwide Vitality Company report advised that 59 new lithium mines want to return on line all over the world by the top of this decade.

The U.S. as a rustic can not proceed to depend on international powers similar to China for our lithium. As our relationship with the belligerent Chinese language management continues to worsen, we don’t need to turn into extra depending on them for our power. This mine may probably present essential materials and enhance the power of Maine’s economic system. However at what price? Are there safeguards that may shield towards the discharge of poisonous metals into its wilderness? Particularly in part of the state so depending on tourism?

Lawmakers want to seek out the center floor of regulation on lithium mines, but the talk doesn’t appear to be taking place on the state or federal degree. The dialog wants to begin now so Maine residents can resolve on their future earlier than another person does it for them

Tommy Lowell is a freshman at Colby Faculty in Waterville. He attended highschool in Bethel.

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