Lithium element Critical Material
The element Li, distinct from dissolved lithium ions, Li-bearing mineral species or groups, and battery materials. The US designation below concerns the named lithium commodity in the 2025 list, not every Li-containing resource.
Identifiers & Classification
| System | Identifier | Label |
|---|---|---|
| CHEBI |
CHEBI:30145
|
lithium atom |
Criticality Designations
| Jurisdiction | List Name | Edition / Document | Classification | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States of America | USGS Final List of Critical Minerals | 2025; Federal Register 90:50494-50497 | critical |
usgs2025
|
| European Union | Regulation (EU) 2024/1252, Annex II, Section 1(s), lithium | 2024 original act; OJ L 2024/1252, 3 May 2024 | critical |
eu2024
|
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)
Transient microbial enhancement of Li release from jadarite-bearing material
bioleaching
Microbial
Associated Organisms:
Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (NCBITaxon:920)
Inoculation accelerated Li solubilization from a jadarite-bearing sample relative to uninoculated acidic medium during part of a laboratory time course. The uninoculated control reached similar dissolved Li by day 30, and sulfuric-acid-only leaching released more Li. Biofilm involvement was suggested, without establishing a unique molecular cause.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Live in-lab ore-derived culture was reported as At. ferrooxidans, without a strain accession. The species identifier normalizes the reported name to Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans; the title and abstract spell the genus Acidiothiobacillus. This mapping does not independently identify the culture. Ground Jadar Valley material contained jadarite, dolomite and probertite, with possible unidentified Li-bearing phases. Triplicate biotic flasks ran statically at 23 degrees C for 30 days, targeting pH 1.8; addition of jadarite raised pH immediately and required repeated sulfuric acid doses. Acid additions differed between treatments, limiting attribution of the observed difference solely to biology. Methods state 2 g powder, 190 mL basal medium and 10 mL inoculum but label this 2% w/v; those amounts imply 1% w/v. The discrepancy is unresolved and no normalized yield is curated. No purified Li product or industrial heap operation was demonstrated.
Live in-lab ore-derived culture was reported as At. ferrooxidans, without a strain accession. The species identifier normalizes the reported name to Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans; the title and abstract spell the genus Acidiothiobacillus. This mapping does not independently identify the culture. Ground Jadar Valley material contained jadarite, dolomite and probertite, with possible unidentified Li-bearing phases. Triplicate biotic flasks ran statically at 23 degrees C for 30 days, targeting pH 1.8; addition of jadarite raised pH immediately and required repeated sulfuric acid doses. Acid additions differed between treatments, limiting attribution of the observed difference solely to biology. Methods state 2 g powder, 190 mL basal medium and 10 mL inoculum but label this 2% w/v; those amounts imply 1% w/v. The discrepancy is unresolved and no normalized yield is curated. No purified Li product or industrial heap operation was demonstrated.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
kirk2024
Sections 2.1-2.3 and 3.1-3.2, Fig. 1 and Table 1 support the scoped ICP-OES dissolved-Li comparison and mixed substrate identity. Acid leaching contributed substantially in all treatments.
Partial
Source:
kirk2024
Section 3.2 limits the advantage to a transient comparison: by day 30 the uninoculated control was similar, and acid-only leaching remained higher. Sections 3.3-3.4 and Figs. 4-5 report no material microbial enhancement for the tested spodumene- and lepidolite-bearing samples. The lepidolite sample name is retained without treating it as a unique mineral species. The result cannot be generalized to all Li ores.
Partial
Source:
kirk2024_data_v1
The eight-file version 1 deposit was acquired and its issuing hashes verified. Jadarite day-30 values are consistent with the reported control convergence and higher acid-only result, but quantitative verification remains limited. Bioleaching workbook headers use mg/kg rather than the paper's mg/L; mineral-digestion units also require reconciliation. In Jadarite bioleaching results from ICP-OES.xlsx, Jadarite!F5 and F7 do not equal the arithmetic means of the labelled replicate cells C:E. Standalone spodumene and lepidolite workbooks contain identical Li replicate blocks at Sheet1!C3:E12, requiring provenance clarification before independent comparison. These are unresolved mappings and inconsistencies, not identified corrections or specific refutations of the paper's qualitative comparisons. The files provide no loading or per-flask acid-dose ledger to resolve the published contradictions. No deposited number was corrected or imported as a normalized yield or quantitative benchmark.
Sources & References
-
kirk2024: Kirk et al. (2024). Bioleaching of lithium from jadarite, spodumene, and lepidolite using Acidiothiobacillus ferrooxidans. Frontiers in Microbiology 15:1467408. The genus spelling is retained from the published title.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1467408 (accessed 2026-10-09) -
chebi_lithium: ChEBI CHEBI:30145 - lithium atom
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/CHEBI:30145 (accessed 2026-10-09) -
ncbi_ferrooxidans: NCBI Taxonomy 920 - Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (species)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=920&mode=info (accessed 2026-10-09) -
usgs2025: USGS (2025). Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals. Federal Register 90:50494-50497, document 2025-19813.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-11-07/html/2025-19813.htm (accessed 2026-10-09) -
eu2024: Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of 11 April 2024. Original Official Journal text, 3 May 2024; Annex II, Section 1(s), lithium, page 57 of 67.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202401252 (accessed 2026-10-09) -
kirk2024_data_v1: Kirk et al. (2024). Bioleaching of lithium from jadarite, spodumene and lepidolite using Acidiothiobacillus ferrooxidans. Mendeley Data, version 1, published 14 November 2024; CC BY 4.0. Published genus spelling retained.
https://doi.org/10.17632/djkf7tkm8d.1 (accessed 2026-10-09)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-09T04:47:22Z |
Codex (GPT-6; Codex) | record_creation | Curated the lithium element identity, USGS 2025 designation and conditional laboratory bioleaching evidence. Retained control convergence, null effects, uncertain strain identity and loading/acid limitations; no normalized yield was imported. Independent review remains a separate artifact. |
2026-10-09T05:49:13Z |
Codex (GPT-6; Codex) | criticality_extension | Added the historical EU 2024 Annex II critical designation for lithium from the authentic original act. Kept the battery-grade strategic listing separate and preserved all existing scientific claims. Independent review remains a separate artifact. |
2026-10-09T05:52:36Z |
Codex (GPT-6; Codex) | evidence_extension | Added the acquired Mendeley version 1 source and partial evidence preserving unresolved units, aggregate calculations, replicate provenance and loading or acid-dose attribution. Retained paper-scoped qualitative claims and existing designations without importing quantitative benchmarks. Independent review remains a separate artifact. |
Record source: data/records/lithium.yaml