A trove of lithium, a raw material critical for electric vehicle batteries, was found in Arkansas, researchers said.

A combination of water testing and machine learning by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Office of the State Geologist discovered that an estimated 5 to 19 million tons of lithium reserves are located beneath southwestern Arkansas, it was announced in a Monday press release.

The lithium was found in a geological area known as the Smackover Formation, a relic of an ancient sea that left an extensive, porous, and permeable limestone geologic unit that extends under parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

If commercially recoverable, the amount of lithium present would meet projected 2030 world demand for lithium in car batteries nine times over.

The U.S. currently relies on imports for more than 25% of its lithium, which mostly is produced in Australia and South America. A large majority of it is then processed in China, which dominates the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries.

“Lithium is a critical mineral for the energy transition, and the potential for increased U.S. production to replace imports has implications for employment, manufacturing and supply chain resilience,” USGS Director David Applegate said in a statement. “This study illustrates the value of science in addressing economically important issues.”

Katherine Knierim, a hydrologist and the study’s principal researcher, cautioned that the discovery of the lithium does not guarantee usage.

“We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace U.S. imports of lithium and more,” Knierim said. “It is important to caution that these estimates are an in-place assessment. We have not estimated what is technically recoverable based on newer methods to extract lithium from brines.”

The New York Times reported that several companies, including Exxon Mobil, are developing projects in Arkansas to produce lithium.

Those companies are scaling up new methods of extracting lithium from salty water.

Direct lithium extraction, the processing technique Exxon and others are pursuing, generally costs more than more conventional methods, according to the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, The New York Times said.

The Biden administration has encouraged the energy industry to produce the raw materials needed for the lithium-ion batteries.

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