Collaborative Research: GEO-CM: Tectonic Controls on Lithium Delivery and Enrichment in the Basin and Range

Lithium is a critical mineral that is important to the energy security and economy of the U.S. The only producing lithium brine operation in the U.S. is in Clayton Valley, Nevada. The geologic processes that produce, transport, and concentrate lithium in the basin are not well understood. This project will study the controls on lithium source, transport, and enrichment. Project analyses will help researchers understand the geologic structures and fluids in the Clayton Valley region. The project goal is to produce a basin-scale geochemical model to understand processes that distribute lithium across the basin. This project will also partner with industry to develop the Western U.S. Critical Minerals Field School. The field school will help students gain skills in the field and lab, with an emphasis on lithium systems. Clayton Valley, Nevada, hosts the only currently producing lithium brine operation in North America, yet the geologic processes controlling lithium sourcing, transport, and concentration in this basin remain poorly constrained. Current models for lithium systems do not currently address the relative roles of faulting, basin evolution, and fluid pathways, which limits the ability to predict where economically viable lithium resources may occur. This project will reconstruct the tectonic and hydrologic evolution of the valley and will quantify how deformation controls lithium enrichment. Researchers will use complementary methods to reconstruct the tectonic and hydrologic evolution. Additional analyses will help constrain the timing of extension, volcanism, basin sedimentation, and fault activity. Results will better constrain lithium sources and help assess how faults and basin architecture influence fluid migration and redistribution. Researchers will compile a process-based model linking fault evolution, basin development, and fluid flow to lithium accumulation through time. The resulting framework will explicitly test whether faults act primarily as conduits, barriers, or long-lived fluid pathways and quantify how changes in basin architecture influence lithium transport and concentration. Results will provide transferable insights for lithium exploration across the Basin and Range and other extensional systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.