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0:00Okay, so something I discovered on my
0:02last reporting trip in Nevada is that
0:05inside this 16 million-year-old volcanic
0:07crater might be the site of America's
0:11>> White gold or the new oil,
0:12>> Nevada's new gold.
0:14>> White gold. But it's not gold. It's
0:18>> Lithium is one of the most coveted
0:20materials in the world right now. Some
0:22>> One of the key components behind the
0:24batteries that power EVs, solar panels,
0:26laptops. really the future. And
0:29considering the trajectory of lithium
0:31prices, you could see why people are
0:33saying that this is like the next gold
0:35rush. But there is a problem because
0:38unlike gold, the earth is actually in no
0:40short supply of lithium. And as quickly
0:42as these lithium prices went up, they
0:44also seem to be falling down. Yet, a ton
0:47of investment has already gone into
0:48developing lithium mines in that
0:50volcanic crater in Nevada, including a
0:53$2.26 billion loan from the government.
0:57That crater in Nevada known as the
0:58Mcdermic caldera contains the largest
1:01known lithium deposit in the US and it
1:03could potentially be one of the largest
1:05in the world. But the US might be a
1:08little too late. China does much of the
1:10heavy lifting when it comes to
1:11processing lithium. So that means even
1:14if the US has the raw material, we still
1:16have to send it overseas to turn it into
1:18material that we could actually use.
1:20>> So is the scramble to invest more into
1:22lithium actually a really costly
1:24mistake? or might this mineral be key to
1:27securing the US's future in clean energy
1:29and also minimizing its dependence on
1:34So, the topic lithium has been on my
1:36mind ever since we published this story
1:38where we learned that there are over 600
1:39mining ghost towns in Nevada.
1:41>> Fortunately, there are a lot of places
1:43that were once mining towns, became
1:45ghost towns, and are now maybe a name on
1:48>> What is a ghost town? I'm not even
1:50certain I know the answer to that
1:52question. And I had some really
1:53interesting conversations with some of
1:55our interview subjects about modern
1:56mining and whether or not ghost towns
1:58could be created in the future. We still
2:00have very active mind. Of course,
2:02lithium is the big one now. They're
2:05>> So, I knew I wanted to come back to that
2:07reporting because, well,
2:11yes, guys, we are reading the comments.
2:14Plus, we learned an interesting fact on
2:16that reporting trip, which is that
2:17Nevada is the only state producing
2:21>> every human on this planet uses 27 28
2:25times more mined lithium than they did
2:28>> which is honestly an extraordinary rate
2:31of change in consumption. I mean, I
2:34don't even drive an EV. I drive a
2:36hybrid. But even in this car, there's a
2:38lithium ion battery. After China, the US
2:41is the second largest consumer of
2:43lithium in the world. Yet, the US
2:45produces less than 1% of the global
2:48supply of lithium. So, I called up Eric
2:50and Simon who are both professors at the
2:52University of Nevada, Reno. They study
2:54the history of mining and geology. Some
2:57of you might even recognize Eric from
2:58the ghost towns of Nevada story. I
3:01really want to get a sense of whether or
3:03not it was worth it for the US to be
3:06mining its own lithium considering how
3:08high the investment is and how low the
3:13>> Along with that skyrocketing price were
3:16concerns about who controls the supply
3:18chain um and where does uh that lithium
3:21come from, where does it go? Um and what
3:24happens if we really need it and
3:26somebody decides that they don't really
3:27want to get it to us? We're looking for
3:29lithium everywhere and we we're worried
3:31that in the at least in the medium to
3:33long term we probably won't have enough
3:34lithium to meet the demand that we're
3:37>> That has really driven uh the
3:39exploration uh for some of these uh big
3:43scale new lithium mines that we're
3:46>> So yes, that backropass lithium
3:48discovery has been critical, but supply
3:50is only part of the equation. There's
3:53actually a major bottleneck that we
3:55haven't yet accounted for. I'll explain
3:57a bit more, but first a quick detour and
4:00a little bit more about this metal known
4:02as lithium. A quick interruption, but
4:04this is important because reporting like
4:06this takes a whole team. Video producers
4:08like myself, editors, animators, fact
4:11checkers, audio engineers, all working
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4:14accurate, nuanced, and honestly
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4:18independent journalism like this is
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4:22since, well, you're here, then I think
4:25you would love our new Vox community
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4:39mean, just look at the amount of gear I
4:40needed for one shoot. Plus, you'll get a
4:43sneak peek at new shows we're developing
4:45and a chance to talk to us about stories
4:46that you want to hear. If you're curious
4:48about what you'll get out of a
4:49membership, stick around to the end of
4:51the video where you'll see a sneak
4:52preview of an episode of our Patreon
4:54exclusive series, The Docket. And now,
4:56back to our reporting on America's white
4:58gold rush. Prior to the boom in demand
5:00for EVs, lithium was used in small
5:02quantities for things like bipolar
5:04disorder medication, glass, grease. But
5:07lithium in its pure form is actually not
5:09that useful. It needs to be mined and
5:12refined to be turned into practical
5:13things like lithium ion batteries. And
5:16this refinement process is really where
5:18that bottleneck takes place. To catch up
5:21really quickly, here's a snippet of a
5:23video I worked on previously that
5:24explains why that battery refinement
5:27process is so much of the holdup. But
5:30where China really controls the supply
5:32chain are the steps after mining. No
5:34matter who mines the minerals, China
5:35refineses a vast majority of them. This
5:38is the step where factories grind down
5:40raw min materials and extract the
5:42desired mineral from it. It's pretty
5:44polluting. That's why you don't see as
5:46much refining happening in developed
5:48countries. Chinese plants then also
5:50manufactured the vast majority of the
5:52four components of the EV batteries, the
5:54cathode, the anode, the electrolyte, and
5:57the separator and put them together to
5:59make the batteries sell. In fact, one of
6:01the world's top suppliers of lithium,
6:03Australia, sends 90% of its exports to
6:06China to be refined. Let's take a look
6:08again at that graph of lithium prices.
6:10If we zoom into the years of the price
6:11booms, it tells us a bit more about why
6:14relying on China makes prices really
6:16volatile. And it all starts with the
6:20>> Right around the pandemic, there were
6:22these sort of twin shocks, right? On one
6:23hand, the foreign policy of the United
6:25States got sideways a little bit with uh
6:28China and vice versa.
6:29>> The global supply chain right now is
6:32>> All of this is putting even more
6:34pressure on global supply chains.
6:36>> Um and then also there were I think very
6:38real demonstrations of of what
6:40vulnerability looked like if global
6:42trade suddenly ceased. Um, and those two
6:45things together, I think, really, uh,
6:48opened a lot of eyes as to to thinking
6:51about supply chains and minerals and raw
6:54>> The lack of supply from China, plus a
6:56boom in EV demands, pushed lithium
6:58prices up to $70,000 per ton in 2022.
7:02>> A record year for lithium amid this
7:04electric vehicle boom.
7:06>> And then that massive demand meant that
7:08a lot of projects that weren't viable
7:10before came online really suddenly. um a
7:14lot more lithium was produced,
7:15>> but this high demand really didn't last
7:17long. The increased supplies caused
7:19prices to significantly drop.
7:21>> If their lithium price remains low, that
7:23means that those lithium mining
7:24operations are going to be challenged
7:26economically and some of them may
7:27actually stop producing lithium as a
7:30>> Indeed, CL the world's biggest maker of
7:32electric vehicle batteries. It will be
7:34uh suspending operations at this mine
7:36temporarily for 3 months. But this
7:38really is coming about at a time when
7:41know lithium prices are pretty
7:44>> All this brings us back to Thacker Pass
7:46and that crater in Nevada, home to the
7:48largest lithium deposit in the United
7:50States with the potential to yield
7:5240,000 tons of lithium in its first
7:55phase of mining. Despite the plummeting
7:57prices of lithium, China's decades long
7:59head start in the battery refinement
8:01process and the possibility of
8:04diversifying away from lithium EVs in
8:06the future. The US has still issued this
8:09$2 billion loan to lithium Americas, the
8:12Canadian company that is running that
8:14lithium mine at Theer Pass. As of 2025,
8:17Nevada has the only commercial lithium
8:19refinery in all of the US. But
8:22considering that the state of Nevada has
8:23had one of the highest unemployment
8:25rates, this lithium investment could
8:27really change the state's economy. In
8:30fact, even their governor, Joe Lombardo,
8:32sees it as a lifeline.
8:34>> That's a long-term
8:38I'll use the word salvation. Salvation
8:41for the state of Nevada.
8:42>> The government expects nearly 2,000 jobs
8:44to be created in Nevada through The
8:46Pass. And honestly, even we felt it when
8:49we were there for our reporting. We
8:51stayed in a town known as Winnamaka,
8:52Nevada, which is only an hour outside of
8:54Backer Pass. And on a Wednesday, it was
8:57nearly impossible to find a hotel to
8:59stay in because of how many people were
9:01in town. In the coming months, several
9:04hundreds of workforce housing units will
9:07be built for workers at the Thacker Pass
9:10lithium mine just a couple of hours
9:13>> Despite the government's wishes, the
9:15prices of lithium may tell a different
9:17story. In just two years, from 2022 to
9:202024, lithium prices fell by over 80%.
9:24Plus, we haven't even talked about the
9:26externalities of mining.
9:27>> Anytime you've got mining, you've got
9:29disturbance. It's a matter of opening up
9:32the Earth's crust and getting things out
9:34of there. That's always going to be
9:36disruptive. It brings jobs. That's a
9:38plus. But also, there's ecological
9:40damage. There's concern about uh harming
9:44landscapes that have value to indigenous
9:46people. Um, and those are always uh
9:50issues that need to be balanced.
9:52>> So, the promise of mining riches coupled
9:54with the age-old tale of boomman bus
9:57cycles felt eerily similar to those 19th
10:00century ghost town stories that we heard
10:02about in our initial reporting.
10:04>> You know, there's no easy answers. Do
10:05you want to do without your cell phone?
10:07Do you want to do without electric
10:08vehicles? Probably not. Could we have
10:11something where instead of just being
10:12the place where lithium is mined, can we
10:15make a whole life cycle, can we mine the
10:18lithium, process it into batteries,
10:21recycle those batteries, and bring it
10:23all the way around, right? Something
10:25that's a little more sustainable.
10:26There's real promise with that with
10:27lithium because a lot of people are
10:29thinking about that. That's the the fun
10:31part about being a historian is I don't
10:32have to answer these questions, but
10:34raising them, I think it really is
10:36>> Thanks for sticking around to the end.
10:38As promised, I wanted to give you a
10:39sneak peek of our Patreon exclusive
10:41series, The Docket, where we break down
10:43how major Supreme Court decisions could
10:45reshape American life.
10:50The Voting Rights Act is not just a
10:52victory for black Americans. In the
10:55words of Martin Luther King Jr., it
10:57enriches the lives of all Americans.
11:00>> The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a very
11:03big deal. It transformed America,
11:05marking the end of the Jim Crow era and
11:07effectively banning racial
11:09discrimination in elections.
11:10>> When Lynden Johnson came into office, he
11:14made black civil rights a priority.
11:16>> It is to give all our people the right
11:19to choose their leaders. To deny this
11:23right, I think, is to deny democracy
11:28>> When Congress passed the Voting Rights
11:29Act, I mean, they talked about it as,
11:31you know, being this crown jewel, right?
11:33like that they had finally writed a
11:35>> The stunning thing about the Voting
11:37Rights Act is just how fast it worked.
11:39Um, so on the day it was signed, less
11:42than 7% of black eligible voters in the
11:44state of Mississippi were registered to
11:46vote. Just 2 years later, that number
11:50>> But in the past few decades,
11:51conservative justices on the Supreme
11:53Court have taken major steps towards
11:56>> Supreme Court just finished hearing
11:58arguments in a major Republican
11:59challenge to the Voting Rights Act. This
12:01is a case that could gut key provisions
12:03that prohibit racial discrimination in
12:06>> He's talking about the Louisiana versus
12:08Cala case. At first glance, it might
12:11look like yet another scuffle over who
12:12gets their way when it comes to drawing
12:14electoral maps. But the truth is, there
12:17is a lot at stake here, and you should
12:19care about it. Because if the plaintiffs
12:21in this case get their way, the Voting
12:23Rights Act could be erased, and America
12:25could be transformed again, but this
12:27time it would tear down more than half a
12:29century of voting rights progress.
12:31>> The Supreme Court is now set to decide
12:33not just if Louisiana must keep two
12:36majority black districts, but whether
12:37the Voting Rights Act can continue
12:39protecting minority representation
12:41nationwide. So, slap on your I voted
12:44stickers and get your notebooks out
12:46because this video is going to take a
12:48trip through history to explain how a
12:49shifting Supreme Court got us here and
12:51how this case in Louisiana could upend
12:53voting rights and political
12:55representation for a generation. This is
12:57the Docket, a Patreon exclusive Vox
13:00series unpacking the Supreme Court cases
13:02that you need to know about.
