New work by a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor fills some gaps in knowledge about Earth’s resources of lithium, a critical element powering electronics and electric vehicles.

Lithium is on a list of elements and minerals the U.S. government deems vital for national security and energy independence.

The work by professor Lee Ann Munk of the UAF Geophysical Institute focuses on geological basins that contain lithium-rich liquid brines or brines that have dried out.

“Lithium brines host most of the world’s lithium supply and are the most economically recoverable lithium source,” Munk said. “And mining them in these settings has the lowest carbon release and freshwater impact of any currently producing lithium deposit type.”

“We need a comprehensive understanding of where these brines occur geologically and how and why they form, with the idea that we can use this updated information to improve exploration, characterization and extraction of these types of deposits,” she said.

Lithium brines are one of three major types of lithium deposits. The others are hard rock and sedimentary-volcanic deposits.

Munk’s latest work was published March 18 in Economic Geology and centers on brines in closed basins, one of three primary lithium brine basin types. The others are sedimentary basin brines and geothermal basin brines. 

The new work includes a database of 110 active, prospective and studied closed basins that contain concentrated lithium brines or former brines that evaporated to become the crystalline surface of a dry bed.

The database greatly expands her earlier work about closed basins.

A closed-basin brine is a salty water body that forms in a drainage basin with no natural ocean outlet. Water can only leave by evaporation, causing dissolved minerals like lithium, sodium and potassium to concentrate over time.

Munk said industry can use the database to inform exploration and research. 

“This work can help supply catch up with demand,” she said.

Global lithium demand has surged in recent years, driven primarily by its use in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Supply has also grown but has not kept pace with demand, leading to concerns about potential shortages and price volatility.

“It’s important because lithium is one of the main energy transition elements,” Munk said. “It is used in lithium-ion batteries, the most important type of lightweight energy storage.”

Alaska has scant known lithium resources.

A site known as Swanson River on the Kenai Peninsula is a geothermal basin brine and considered an exploration prospect. Three other sites are hard-rock and in early exploration, one by Lost River and another by Kougarok, both on the Seward Peninsula, and one at Coal River about 35 miles north of Talkeetna and west of the Parks Highway.

The U.S. Geological Survey, in its 2025 Mineral Commodities Survey, notes that Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China and Zimbabwe account for the majority of the world’s lithium production.

The U.S. imports most of the lithium it uses. Domestic production in 2024 came solely from a Nevada brine operation, the USGS reported. Munk conducts research at this deposit.

The world faces a lithium shortage even though lithium isn’t considered scarce, Munk writes in the research paper.

“The big point is that we are all carrying lithium around with us. There’s electric vehicles and battery storage, but small electronic portable devices are all powered by lithium-ion batteries,” Munk said. “It’s how we are able to live in a technologically advanced society.”

Munk, who has spent decades studying critical elements and minerals, is also director of the Alaska Critical Minerals Collaborative, which formed last year. The organization, based at the UAF Geophysical Institute, brings together researchers and labs from across the University of Alaska system to help industry and government agencies accelerate critical mineral discovery, characterization and extraction in the state. 

The long-term goal is to create an industry-academia-government consortium to advance production of minerals in Alaska and the Arctic. The Geophysical Institute and UAF Institute of Northern Engineering are leading the effort. 

UAF

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