It was

I-40 straight from California to Asheville -
Top lithium producer Albemarle’s original plans to reopen the Kings Mountain mine in North Carolina as early as late 2026 have been pushed back.

Eric Norris, president of energy storage at Albemarle, said progress slowed as the company faces headwinds from a collapse in lithium prices, but the project is moving forward.

The resource-rich mine is crucial to setting up a domestic electric-vehicle battery supply chain
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen traveled to North Carolina to visit Livent, a lithium hydroxide processing company that currently gets its lithium from Canada and Argentina. The company expanded its plant in Bessemer City, N.C., and increased its manufacturing capacity there by 50 percent, a decision it attributed to the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains tax incentives for American-made electric vehicles.
During her tour, Ms. Yellen said the United States was making progress in reducing it

During her tour, Ms. Yellen said the United States was making progress in reducing its dependence on China through its energy initiatives.

“Key supply chains in areas like clean energy are over-concentrated in China, in part due to unfair nonmarket practices over decades,” Ms. Yellen said. “With massive increases in domestic manufacturing capacity, our country will become less dependent on other countries for the inputs we need and we will make great strides toward energy security.”

The Kings Mountain hiking trail known as Cardio Hill overlooks a pit full of rainwater the size of a lake, but the craggy terrain situated about 30 miles west of Charlotte is now one of the most precious pieces of real estate in the United States.

Beneath that ground is a mine that has been stagnant since the 1980s and is believed to contain one of the nation’s largest deposits of lithium, a critical ingredient in the batteries needed to power electric vehicles.

Albemarle Corporation, the world’s largest lithium producer, is trying to revive the mine and capitalize on the Biden administration’s push to develop a domestic electric vehicle industry. It is just one of several projects underway in North Carolina, where companies are racing to secure permits for multibillion-dollar lithium investments, in part to try to benefit from lucrative incentives included in President Biden’s new climate law.