Is Reno the next lithium capital? Companies are looking to Nevada for 'white gold'

by Daniel Rothberg

Redwood Materials in Carson City on Oct. 20, 2021. Photo: David Calvert/The Nevada Independent

Inside an empty office building in downtown Reno, on a cool morning in December, Richard Morrison looked out across Virginia Street, which cuts across town. The office space is being developed for NeoLith, an offshoot of Schlumberger, a global oilfield services company. 

But in Nevada, it’s not oil that the company is after. 

Hundreds of miles away, in the Clayton Valley outside Tonopah, NeoLith is looking for lithium, a key ingredient needed to move away from combustible engines and toward electric vehicles. In this venture, its strategic partner is Panasonic Energy of North America, which operates out of the Gigafactory, what the company says is “the largest lithium-ion battery factory in the world.”

Morrison, who grew up in Reno and graduated from McQueen High School and then UNR, moved away from Nevada to work for Schlumberger in Texas, focusing mostly on oil projects. When an opportunity to work on a lithium project in his hometown arose, Morrison jumped on it. 

“We need domestic sources of these critical minerals in order to have a successful energy transition,” he said in an interview earlier this year. “Right now, we get a vast majority of lithium outside of the U.S. In fact, there's only one operating commercial mine currently. It's important that we bring on new sources, and Nevada has one of the best resources in the nation.”

Read the entire article at The Nevada Independent: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/is-reno-the-next-lithium-capital-companies-are-looking-to-nevada-for-white-gold