An Australian company has started drilling at a site in southeast Oregon that could eventually host a large lithium mine.
Jindalee Resources Ltd., , announced earlier this week that it鈥檚 working to determine the extent of a lithium deposit in southern Malheur County.
The company said in a release that the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) has approved drilling of 39 holes to shore up Jindalee鈥檚 estimate of how much lithium exists at the site. Jindalee has said the deposit west of the Oregon-Nevada border town of McDermitt is among the largest lithium deposits in the country.
Multiple requests for comment from Jindalee and DOGAMI have not been returned.
In an interview with the financial media outlet Proactive this spring, Jindalee executive director Lindsay Dudfield called the McDermitt Lithium Project 鈥�.鈥�
Lithium is an extremely lightweight metal seen as critical to a global transition off fossil fuels to renewable energy. The element is foundational to lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles and store power generated by things like wind and solar, among other uses.
The Biden administration has made clear that it wants to . Jindalee says the McDermitt Lithium Project has potential to do both.
鈥淭he key outcomes of the [scoping] Study highlighted the potential of the Project to support a viable standalone lithium mining and processing operation and reinforced the significance of McDermitt as a potential long-life source of future supply to the rapidly growing US battery manufacturing industry,鈥� .
The project is located on the northern edge of the McDermitt Caldera, which more than 16 million years ago. Lithium-rich sediments have been found near the caldera鈥檚 perimeter.
A proposed lithium mine on the Nevada side of the caldera has for its potential ecological harm, desecration of a historic massacre site, disruptions to ranching and more.
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