A chemical engineer works on hydrometallurgy metal refining processes at Redwood Materials in Nevada. Photography courtesy of Redwood Materials
From rocky pay dirt near the South Carolina state line to a massive recycling facility in the Lowcountry, projects representing the life cycle of the electric vehicle industry are in the works within a couple hours of the Midlands. Here are the basics on the transportation revolution and the many ways it will touch the Palmetto State.
The burning of fossil fuels by gasoline-powered vehicles releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates transportation accounts for 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. It’s one of many factors scientists believe are contributing to more dangerous weather conditions.
While the topic of climate change remains controversial, governments around the world have begun to provide incentives to encourage the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, attempts to wean drivers from internal combustion engines include $7,500 in tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles. The tax break comes with a hitch, however.
Half the credit — $3,750 — requires that a percentage of the value of the critical minerals contained in the vehicle’s battery be extracted or processed in the United States or in a country with which the U.S. has a free trade agreement or be recycled in North America. Guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department lists the required amount at 40 percent in 2023, scaling up to 80 percent by 2027.
The other half of the credit rewards the percentage of the value of the battery components manufactured or assembled in North America. For 2023, the required amount is 50 percent, scaling up to 100 percent by 2029.
The theory behind the requirement is to encourage American manufacturing and discourage supply chain dependence on countries such as China, which is the current leader in EV battery production. This has hastened an economic development land rush of sorts. Companies have announced plans to build major facilities across the U.S. to manufacture EVs and their parts, including batteries.
“The tax incentives certainly accelerate consumer demand,” says David Clayton, executive director of Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville. “A lot of the expansions and announcements were in the planning stages before the tax breaks were put into law. It does make a difference, but it’s not an enormous difference.”
South Carolina, which has slowly built its gasoline-powered vehicle manufacturing capabilities over the past three decades, is poised to join the electric vehicle boom. Multiple manufacturers plan to make EVs in the Palmetto State, and facilities related to EV batteries have also been announced. But compared to the vehicles one typically sees rolling down Assembly Street or Lake Murray Boulevard, EVs have different requirements to make them go, and the starting line is near the state line in a place called the Tin-Spodumene Belt of the Carolinas.
It takes about two hours to cover the 113 or so miles — approximately one-third of the driving range of a 2023 BMW iX — from Columbia to Bessemer City, North Carolina. The Tin-Spodumene Belt of the Carolinas, which runs just west of town, is considered one of the top potential sources of lithium in the world. One of the most detailed public analyses of the belt dates back to 1942, when a report was prepared by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The report describes an approximately 25-mile-long, 1.8-mile-wide strip that starts near Lincolnton, North Carolina, and travels southwest until it barely dips into the Palmetto State. Tin was mined at the southern tip of the belt near Gaffney in the early part of the 20th century. The report indicates the portion near Gaffney bears no spodumene. Spodumene is a mineral that contains lithium, which has been mined off and on in the North Carolina portion of the belt for decades.
“In the 1940s, two companies set up shop and were supplying lithium to the Manhattan Project,” says Austin Devaney, executive vice president and chief commercial officer with Piedmont Lithium. The company, which is based in Belmont, North Carolina, plans to extract lithium hydroxide from spodumene near Bessemer City. He believes the probable lithium oxide ore reserves it controls are 18.3 million tons. Piedmont Lithium also estimates the belt extends roughly 50 miles and could be the largest spodumene deposit in the United States. Austin says, “Vast areas are unexplored in that belt.”
Piedmont Lithium is working with the state of North Carolina to finalize its mining approval. It expects its $1 billion quarry to be in operation by 2027. As reported by Charleston’s Post and Courier in May, Piedmont Lithium’s plans have received pushback from locals wary of environmental impacts from a large-scale mining operation.
“We have spent the past three years designing the facility to have the least impact possible,” Austin says. “With any development project, you’re likely to face some sort of opposition. A cooperative effort is underway to work with and educate our neighbors.”
Piedmont Lithium also has a project planned in Tennessee, in addition to interests in Quebec and Ghana. The company has an agreement to supply spodumene concentrate to Tesla. A South Korean company, LG Chem, has invested in Piedmont Lithium and has an agreement to receive spodumene concentrate for its production of EV battery components. LG Chem has announced partnerships with several automakers and is involved in EV-related projects in multiple states. Foreign companies have an imperative to invest in the U.S. due to the federal tax breaks benefiting domestic EVs and components.
Why is lithium so important? EVs run on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Edison Electric Institute estimates the United States will be home to 26.4 million electric vehicles by 2030. That would only be 10 percent of the total U.S. vehicle population. If even a small portion of the millions of gasoline-burning U.S. cars and trucks are replaced with EVs, demand for lithium-ion batteries, and therefore lithium, is expected to skyrocket.
Reuters has reported that General Motors Co. is investing in lithium extraction projects in California and Nevada. Other automakers, including Ford Motor Co., have signed supply deals to ensure access to lithium.
But again, why lithium? It’s because of the efficiency with which the lithium atom can be split into electron and ion. When providing power, lithium ions move from anode to cathode, then reconnect with their electrons. Lithium-ion batteries are fast charging and low maintenance. Until battery technology advances, EVs aren’t going anywhere without lithium.
Driving from Bessemer City takes a little over an hour on Interstate 85 to get to BMW’s manufacturing facility in South Carolina. In late 2022, the automaker announced it would spend $1 billion preparing Plant Spartanburg to build EVs and another $700 million to build a battery assembly facility in nearby Woodruff.
Heading the other way out of North Carolina on I-77 takes about the same amount of time to get to Chester County. Many Midlands motorists only know Chester as a time for daydreaming, the lonely middle section between Columbia and Charlotte. That may change soon.
In March, Charlotte-based Albemarle Corp. announced plans for a lithium hydroxide processing facility on 800 acres near Richburg. The company, which is the world’s top lithium producer with projects around the globe, plans to make an initial investment of $1.3 billion, creating 300 jobs. The facility would process everything from rock to recycled batteries, with hopes to produce at least 50,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide each year. Albemarle expects to begin construction in late 2024.
The drive from Richburg to Blythewood, just outside Columbia, is less than 40 minutes. Last March, startup EV manufacturer Scout Motors announced it would build its first factory on 1,100 acres in a Richland County industrial park off I-77. It plans to invest $2 billion; create 4,000 jobs; and produce more than 200,000 trucks and SUVs per year at the plant. The company tells CMM it’s currently focused on “designing and engineering an SUV and truck that will be successful in the U.S. market and preparing the Blythewood site to begin construction of the manufacturing facility.” Production is expected to begin by the end of 2026.
Down toward where I-77 terminates at I-26 are several industrial parks. One of them could be producing EV battery material within the next several months. In yet another March announcement, Cirba Solutions revealed plans to build a $300 million lithium-ion battery recycling facility. The 400,000-square-foot campus at Pineview Industrial Park would create more than 300 jobs. Beginning in late 2024, it would extract critical materials such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium, which the Charlotte-based company says could power more than 500,000 EV batteries annually.
From Columbia, the lithium/EV trail turns toward the coast. The drive takes around an hour and 20 minutes to get from the capital to Camp Hall Commerce Park near Ridgeville. The Berkeley County industrial park is already home to Volvo Cars, which has invested millions in EV production there. Volvo is getting an expensive new neighbor.
In December 2022, Redwood Materials, Inc., announced plans to establish a facility on 600 acres at Camp Hall. The $3.5 billion investment, which promises to create 1,500 jobs, was touted as the largest economic development announcement in the history of South Carolina. The company expects its South Carolina facility to produce enough material for 1 million EVs each year.
“Redwood is unique because we’re at both the beginning and the end of the battery’s life cycle,” says Morgan Crapps, public affairs and government relations director for the Nevada-based company. It will receive end-of-life battery packs from companies such as Volvo and recycle them to extract nickel, copper, cobalt, and lithium. Then it will use those materials to make new cathode and anode products. “The cathode and the anode are two of the most critical parts of a lithium-ion battery, and the cathode is the most expensive. Once we produce the components, they will go to a battery cell manufacturer.”
Redwood is a partner with electric bus manufacturer Proterra, which has facilities in Greenville and Greer, as well as neighboring Volvo, which plans to build the Polestar EV at Camp Hall, and Volkswagen, the parent company of Scout Motors. The company is currently finalizing the design phase of the Camp Hall facility, which was selected partly because of its proximity to EV battery projects happening in the Carolinas and Georgia.
The facility will be 100 percent electric, derived from zero emission clean energy. Redwood’s unique approach of consolidating recycling, refining, and remanufacturing of battery materials on a single, U.S. site reduces the cost, emissions and geopolitical risks associated with the supply chain that exists today, which spans across the world.
“We estimate the supply chain is up to 50,000 miles for a single atom of lithium,” Morgan says. “By collapsing this supply chain onto one site, we’re able to drastically reduce the environmental footprint and ensure these critical minerals are staying here in the United States for domestic customers which, in turn, will also help reduce the cost of EVs.”
At this point, much of the billions of dollars in corporate promises have yet to make their way into girders and concrete, but the concept may not be as novel as some might think. “One day, Nevada’s leaders imagine, a chunk of desert rock could be refined into lithium powder, poured into a battery cell, and finally inserted into a giant electric truck, all without ever leaving Nevada.” That’s what Politico’s E&E News wrote in February about the western state’s plans.
“South Carolina might be unique in the breadth of activity from the raw materials to the battery components to the battery recycling,” says Clemson-ICAR’s David.
While plenty of activity is on South Carolina’s plate for now, the potential exists to fill out the cycle even further. From North Carolina rocks to South Carolina EVs to battery recyclers extracting materials that could go right back into future Palmetto State EVs, lithium could practically make a mountains-to-coast round trip without going very far at all.
