The Scramble for Lithium
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Economy
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Books & the Arts
/ February 23, 2026
The Scramble for Lithium
Thea Riofrancos’s Extraction tells the story of how a rare earth mineral became the focus of a worldwide battle over the future of green energy and, by extension, capitalism.
Casey A. Williams
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A worker holds lithium hydroxide at the Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM) chemical plant in Antofagasta, Chile, 2024.
(Cristobal Olivares / Bloomberg)
In April 2021, the sheriff of Humboldt County in Nevada asked Mark Pfeifle for advice on how to contain protests in his jurisdiction. Pfeifle was the right man to ask: A former adviser to George W. Bush and a longtime right-wing political operator, Pfeifle had played a key role in discrediting the protesters blocking construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 2016. Through his firm Off the Record Strategies, he was able to portray the protesters as “out-of-state agitators” intent on using violence and intimidation to stop the project. Humboldt County officials were worried that the protests at a local mine could escalate into a Standing Rock–style “occupation.” The police, the FBI, and private security contractors had already begun surveilling the protesters, including a group of Native American activists called the People of Red Mountain. The authorities hoped Pfeifle could help them prevent an Indigenous-led movement from spoiling another resource bonanza.
Books in review
Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
by Thea Riofrancos
Buy this book
Northwestern Nevada, it turns out, has lots and lots of lithium. The Thacker Pass mine in Humboldt County sits on what may be one of the largest lithium reserves in the world: an estimated 14.3 million metric tons spread across 18,000 acres of the McDermitt Caldera. The mine’s owners—the Canadian-based firm Lithium Americas and General Motors—stand to earn nearly $6 billion a year once the mine is up and running. As president, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden had backed the project, providing federal loans and fast-tracked permits as part of a bipartisan effort to expand the domestic production of “critical minerals“—minerals considered essential for national security as the world shifts, haltingly and unevenly, away from fossil fuels. Lithium is a critical component of the batteries that power EVs and store the electricity generated by renewables; it is abundant but difficult to extract profitably. The demand for lithium is expected to grow more than 700 percent by 2050 under the most optimistic decarbonization scenarios compiled by the International Energy Agency, driven largely by exploding EV sales. And …
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.
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The Scramble for Lithium
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Current Issue
Economy
/
Books & the Arts
/ February 23, 2026
The Scramble for Lithium
Thea Riofrancos’s Extraction tells the story of how a rare earth mineral became the focus of a worldwide battle over the future of green energy and, by extension, capitalism.
Casey A. Williams
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
A worker holds lithium hydroxide at the Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM) chemical plant in Antofagasta, Chile, 2024.
(Cristobal Olivares / Bloomberg)
In April 2021, the sheriff of Humboldt County in Nevada asked Mark Pfeifle for advice on how to contain protests in his jurisdiction. Pfeifle was the right man to ask: A former adviser to George W. Bush and a longtime right-wing political operator, Pfeifle had played a key role in discrediting the protesters blocking construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 2016. Through his firm Off the Record Strategies, he was able to portray the protesters as “out-of-state agitators” intent on using violence and intimidation to stop the project. Humboldt County officials were worried that the protests at a local mine could escalate into a Standing Rock–style “occupation.” The police, the FBI, and private security contractors had already begun surveilling the protesters, including a group of Native American activists called the People of Red Mountain. The authorities hoped Pfeifle could help them prevent an Indigenous-led movement from spoiling another resource bonanza.
Books in review
Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
by Thea Riofrancos
Buy this book
Northwestern Nevada, it turns out, has lots and lots of lithium. The Thacker Pass mine in Humboldt County sits on what may be one of the largest lithium reserves in the world: an estimated 14.3 million metric tons spread across 18,000 acres of the McDermitt Caldera. The mine’s owners—the Canadian-based firm Lithium Americas and General Motors—stand to earn nearly $6 billion a year once the mine is up and running. As president, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden had backed the project, providing federal loans and fast-tracked permits as part of a bipartisan effort to expand the domestic production of “critical minerals“—minerals considered essential for national security as the world shifts, haltingly and unevenly, away from fossil fuels. Lithium is a critical component of the batteries that power EVs and store the electricity generated by renewables; it is abundant but difficult to extract profitably. The demand for lithium is expected to grow more than 700 percent by 2050 under the most optimistic decarbonization scenarios compiled by the International Energy Agency, driven largely by exploding EV sales. And …
The Scramble for Lithium
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.
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The Scramble for Lithium
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Search
Subscribe
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Magazine
Latest
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Politics
World
Economy
Culture
Books & the Arts
The Nation
About
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Current Issue
Economy
/
Books & the Arts
/ February 23, 2026
The Scramble for Lithium
Thea Riofrancos’s Extraction tells the story of how a rare earth mineral became the focus of a worldwide battle over the future of green energy and, by extension, capitalism.
Casey A. Williams
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
A worker holds lithium hydroxide at the Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM) chemical plant in Antofagasta, Chile, 2024.
(Cristobal Olivares / Bloomberg)
In April 2021, the sheriff of Humboldt County in Nevada asked Mark Pfeifle for advice on how to contain protests in his jurisdiction. Pfeifle was the right man to ask: A former adviser to George W. Bush and a longtime right-wing political operator, Pfeifle had played a key role in discrediting the protesters blocking construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 2016. Through his firm Off the Record Strategies, he was able to portray the protesters as “out-of-state agitators” intent on using violence and intimidation to stop the project. Humboldt County officials were worried that the protests at a local mine could escalate into a Standing Rock–style “occupation.” The police, the FBI, and private security contractors had already begun surveilling the protesters, including a group of Native American activists called the People of Red Mountain. The authorities hoped Pfeifle could help them prevent an Indigenous-led movement from spoiling another resource bonanza.
Books in review
Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
by Thea Riofrancos
Buy this book
Northwestern Nevada, it turns out, has lots and lots of lithium. The Thacker Pass mine in Humboldt County sits on what may be one of the largest lithium reserves in the world: an estimated 14.3 million metric tons spread across 18,000 acres of the McDermitt Caldera. The mine’s owners—the Canadian-based firm Lithium Americas and General Motors—stand to earn nearly $6 billion a year once the mine is up and running. As president, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden had backed the project, providing federal loans and fast-tracked permits as part of a bipartisan effort to expand the domestic production of “critical minerals“—minerals considered essential for national security as the world shifts, haltingly and unevenly, away from fossil fuels. Lithium is a critical component of the batteries that power EVs and store the electricity generated by renewables; it is abundant but difficult to extract profitably. The demand for lithium is expected to grow more than 700 percent by 2050 under the most optimistic decarbonization scenarios compiled by the International Energy Agency, driven largely by exploding EV sales. And …
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