The product data are six statistics that were estimated for the chemical concentration of lithium in the soil C horizon of the conterminous United States. The estimates are made at 9998 locations that are uniformly distributed across the conterminous United States. The six statistics are the mean for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the equivalent mean for the concentrations, the standard deviation for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the probability of exceeding a concentration of 55 milligrams per kilogram, the 0.95 quantile for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, and the equivalent 0.95 quantile for the concentrations. Each statistic may be used to generate a statistical map that shows an attribute of the distribution of lithium concentration.

This data release contains data used to develop models and maps that estimate the occurrence of lithium in groundwater used as drinking water throughout the conterminous United States. An extreme gradient boosting model was developed to estimate the most probable lithium concentration category (≤4, >4 to ≤10, >10 to ≤30 or >30 µg/L). The model uses lithium concentration data from wells located throughout the conterminous United States and predictor variables that are available as geospatial data. The model is included in this data release in the zipped folder named Model_Archive and was used to produce maps that are also included in this data release. The model input data (predictor variables) that were used to make the maps are within a zipped folder (Map_Input_Data.zip) that contains 20 tif-raster files, one for each model predictor variable. The map probability estimates that are outputs from the model are in a zipped folder (Map_Output_Data.zip) that contains 10 tif-raster files, two model estimate maps for each of the lithium concentration categories and the category with the highest probability for public supply well depths and domestic supply well depths.

This data release contains data used to develop models and maps that estimate the occurrence of lithium in groundwater used as drinking water throughout the conterminous United States. An extreme gradient boosting model was developed to estimate the most probable lithium concentration category (≤4, >4 to ≤10, >10 to ≤30 or >30 µg/L). The model uses lithium concentration data from wells located throughout the conterminous United States and predictor variables that are available as geospatial data. The model is included in this data release in the zipped folder named Model_Archive and was used to produce maps that are also included in this data release. The model input data (predictor variables) that were used to make the maps are within a zipped folder (Map_Input_Data.zip) that contains 20 tif-raster files, one for each model predictor variable. The map probability estimates that are outputs from the model are in a zipped folder (Map_Output_Data.zip) that contains 10 tif-raster files, two model estimate maps for each of the lithium concentration categories and the category with the highest probability for public supply well depths and domestic supply well depths.

The product data are six statistics that were estimated for the chemical concentration of lanthanum in the soil C horizon of the conterminous United States (Smith and others, 2013). The estimates are made at 9998 locations that are uniformly distributed across the conterminous United States. The six statistics are the mean for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the equivalent mean for the concentrations, the standard deviation for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the probability of exceeding a concentration of 48.8 milligrams per kilogram, the 0.95 quantile for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, and the equivalent 0.95 quantile for the concentrations. Each statistic may be used to generate a statistical map that shows an attribute of the distribution of lanthanum concentration.

The product data are six statistics that were estimated for the chemical concentration of lanthanum in the soil C horizon of the conterminous United States (Smith and others, 2013). The estimates are made at 9998 locations that are uniformly distributed across the conterminous United States. The six statistics are the mean for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the equivalent mean for the concentrations, the standard deviation for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the probability of exceeding a concentration of 48.8 milligrams per kilogram, the 0.95 quantile for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, and the equivalent 0.95 quantile for the concentrations. Each statistic may be used to generate a statistical map that shows an attribute of the distribution of lanthanum concentration.

This data release provides the descriptions of approximately 20 U.S. sites that include mineral regions, mines, and mineral occurrences (deposits and prospects) that contain enrichments of lithium (Li). This release includes sites that have a contained resource and (or) past production of lithium metal greater than 15,000 metric tons. Sites in this database occur in Arkansas, California, Nevada, North Carolina, and Utah. There are several deposits that were not included in the database because they did not meet the cutoff requirement, and those occur in Arizona, Colorado, the New England area, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. In the United States, lithium was first mined from pegmatite orebodies in South Dakota in the late 1800s. The Kings Mountain pegmatite belt of North Carolina also had significant production from pegmatites, and the area may still contain as much as 750 million metric tons (Mt) of ore containing 5 Mt lithium metal (Kesler and others, 2012). In 2018, U.S. production of lithium was restricted to a single lithium-brine mining operation in Nevada. In 2018, the U.S. had a net import reliance as a percentage of apparent consumption of more than 50 percent for lithium (U.S. Geological Survey, 2019). The U.S. is not a significant producer of lithium, so the commodity is mainly imported from Chile and Argentina to meet consumer demand. Lithium is necessary for strategic, consumer, and commercial applications. The primary uses for lithium are in batteries, ceramics, glass, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and polymers (U.S. Geological Survey, 2019). Lithium has excellent electrical conductivity and low density (lithium metal will float on water), making it an ideal component for battery manufacturing. Lithium is traded in three primary forms: mineral concentrates, mineral compounds (from brines), and refined metal (electrolysis from lithium chloride). Lithium mineralogy is diverse; it occurs in a variety of pegmatite minerals such as spodumene, lepidolite, amblygonite, and in the clay mineral hectorite. Current global production of lithium is dominated by pegmatite and closed-basin brine deposits, but there are significant resources in lithium-bearing clay minerals, oilfield brines, and geothermal brines (Bradley and others, 2017). The entries and descriptions in the database were derived from published papers, reports, data, and internet documents representing a variety of sources, including geologic and exploration studies described in State, Federal, and industry reports. Resources extracted from older sources might not be compliant with current rules and guidelines in minerals industry standards such as National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) or the Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code (JORC Code). The inclusion of a particular lithium mineral deposit in this database is not meant to imply that the deposit is currently economic. Rather, these deposits were included to capture the characteristics of the larger lithium deposits in the United States, which are diverse in their geology and resource potential. Inclusion of material in the database is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The authors welcome additional published information in order to continually update and refine this dataset. Bradley, D.C., Stillings, L.L., Jaskula, B.W., Munk, LeeAnn, and McCauley, A.D., 2017, Lithium, chap. K of Schulz, K.J., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., Seal, R.R., II, and Bradley, D.C., eds., Critical mineral resources of the United States—Economic and environmental geology and prospects for future supply: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1802, p. K1–K21, https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1802K. Kesler, S.E., Gruber, P.W., Medina, P.A., Keoleian, G.A., Everson, M.P., and Wallington, T.J., 2012, Global lithium resources—relative importance of pegmatite, brine and other deposits: Ore Geology Reviews, v. 48, October ed., p. 55—69. U.S. Geological Survey, 2019, Mineral commodity summaries 2019:

The data included here were used to evaluate the prospectivity for lithium in brines of playas of the western part of the Basin and Range Physiographic Province of the United States. Prospectivity is derived from the mappable criteria used in the descriptive deposit model published by Bradley and others (2013) and focused mainly from the remote sensing point of view. The playas in the study area have been ranked according to size (compared to Clayton Valley, the only area where lithium from brines is being produced in the country), the presence and abundance of source rocks, vegetation (as an indicator of water), reported prospects, and remote sensing data. The remote sensing products used are from data acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) sensor because it has regional coverage not available with other sensors. New in this version: Four records in the Playas feature class ( and the corresponding shapefile and csv files) were modified, affecting the Prospects, Score, and Rank fields.

The data included here were used to evaluate the prospectivity for lithium in brines of playas of the western part of the Basin and Range Physiographic Province of the United States. Prospectivity is derived from the mappable criteria used in the descriptive deposit model published by Bradley and others (2013) and focused mainly from the remote sensing point of view. The playas in the study area have been ranked according to size (compared to Clayton Valley, the only area where lithium from brines is being produced in the country), the presence and abundance of source rocks, vegetation (as an indicator of water), reported prospects, and remote sensing data. The remote sensing products used are from data acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) sensor because it has regional coverage not available with other sensors.

The product data are six statistics that were estimated for the chemical concentration of cobalt in the soil C horizon of the conterminous United States (Smith and others, 2013). The estimates are made at 9998 locations that are uniformly distributed across the conterminous United States. The six statistics are the mean for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the equivalent mean for the concentrations, the standard deviation for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the probability of exceeding a concentration of 24.4 milligrams per kilogram, the 0.95 quantile for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, and the equivalent 0.95 quantile for the concentrations. Each statistic may be used to generate a statistical map that shows an attribute of the distribution of cobalt concentration.

The product data are six statistics that were estimated for the chemical concentration of cobalt in the soil C horizon of the conterminous United States (Smith and others, 2013). The estimates are made at 9998 locations that are uniformly distributed across the conterminous United States. The six statistics are the mean for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the equivalent mean for the concentrations, the standard deviation for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, the probability of exceeding a concentration of 24.4 milligrams per kilogram, the 0.95 quantile for the isometric log-ratio transform of the concentrations, and the equivalent 0.95 quantile for the concentrations. Each statistic may be used to generate a statistical map that shows an attribute of the distribution of cobalt concentration.