"CHARLOTTE, N.C. - As world leaders meet for another climate summit in Egypt, the U.S. is pushing to mine more lithium for electric vehicle batteries at home. EVs will help cut pollution from transportation, the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. But there's a tradeoff, as residents have learned near Charlotte, where a big open-pit mine is proposed.

A company called Piedmont Lithium wants to build a mine and processing operation on 1,500 acres in northern Gaston County, about 30 miles west of Charlotte.

Emily Winter, a community relations coordinator and geologist for Piedmont, leads the way to a large rock outcrop near what someday might be the mine's South Pit.

"So within this rock, it contains spodumene, the mineral. And that mineral spodumene contains lithium that we can convert to lithium hydroxide that then goes into batteries," Winter explains."

David Boraks reports for WFAE/NPR November 12, 2022. [2]