Lithium prospectivity
across the USA & Canada.
Hard-rock (LCT pegmatite) lithium, ranked and explained — validated across the USA and Canada.
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What the model reads for lithium.
Every lithium target is scored on the same seven lines of evidence — with a pathfinder-geochemistry signature tuned to this system.
Host rock
rock type and age
Gravity & magnetics
buried structures and intrusions
Radiometrics
potassium, thorium, uranium
Terrain shape
elevation, slope, aspect
Surface texture
radar (Sentinel-1)
Alteration
mineral signatures from satellite
Pathfinder chemistry
the elements that point to your commodity
Pathfinder geochemistry the model weighs
Lead signal: The pegmatite suite — caesium, rubidium and tantalum. These are the elements this national model actually reads to rank lithium ground.
What is lithium?
Lithium is the lightest metal, valued for its exceptional electrochemical potential and low density, and now central to energy storage. MineDSS models hard-rock lithium hosted in lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite systems — the highly fractionated granitic pegmatites that carry spodumene and petalite as the principal ore minerals. These are the most evolved products of granite crystallisation, enriched in incompatible elements and volatiles. The platform does not model lithium brines from salars or sedimentary-clay lithium; its focus is the crystalline hard-rock resource. What a prospectivity model reads is the geochemical and geological fingerprint of extreme magmatic fractionation — a rare-element pegmatite signature imprinted on host rocks and their weathering products, distinct from ordinary granitic terrain.
The deposit model
LCT pegmatites form where a fertile, peraluminous parent granite crystallises to extreme fractionation, expelling a residual melt enriched in lithium, caesium, rubidium, tantalum and boron. The resulting dyke and sheet swarms are commonly emplaced into metamorphic country rock at a distance from the parent pluton, following structural weaknesses and contacts. Internal zonation, coarse crystal growth, and spodumene or petalite mineralogy characterise the ore zones. MineDSS reads these systems through mapped geology — favourable granite-greenstone and metasedimentary settings and structural corridors — combined with geophysics that resolves lithology and structure, satellite observations sensitive to alteration and weathering, and the pathfinder geochemistry that betrays a fractionated source, integrating them into an explainable prospectivity ranking.
Why it matters
Lithium is a designated critical mineral in the United States and Canada and the defining input to rechargeable battery chemistry. Demand is driven by the electrification of transport, grid-scale energy storage, and portable electronics, alongside efforts to secure resilient domestic and allied supply chains for battery-grade material. Hard-rock spodumene concentrate is a mature, well-understood feedstock for lithium hydroxide and carbonate production. For governments and producers, identifying prospective ground for LCT pegmatite systems supports both resource security and orderly development of the battery-metals sector.
Where it's used
The dominant end use is rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, consumer electronics and stationary grid storage, where lithium hydroxide and carbonate serve as cathode and electrolyte precursors. Beyond batteries, lithium compounds are used in glass and ceramics to improve thermal-shock resistance, in high-performance greases and lubricants, in aluminium smelting fluxes, and in specialty glass, casting powders and certain pharmaceutical and air-treatment applications.
How MineDSS reads it
Explorers target LCT pegmatites through the classic rare-element geochemical suite. MineDSS reads a pathfinder signature of caesium, rubidium, tantalum, niobium, tin and beryllium — the fingerprint of an extremely fractionated source. The lead signal is the pegmatite suite itself: caesium, rubidium and tantalum. These indicators are integrated with mapped favourable lithologies and structural corridors, geophysical expression of host rocks and controlling structures, and satellite evidence of alteration and weathering. Read together as converging evidence lines rather than any single measurement, this combination distinguishes genuinely fertile pegmatite terrain from ordinary evolved granite.
Lithium prospectivity — common questions
What lithium deposit types does MineDSS model?
MineDSS models hard-rock lithium hosted in lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite systems — the highly fractionated granitic pegmatites that carry spodumene and petalite. It does not model lithium brines from salars or sedimentary-clay lithium; the focus is the crystalline hard-rock resource and its distinctive rare-element geochemical fingerprint.
How is the model's accuracy measured, and where is it available?
We validate every model the hard way — held-out spatial cross-validation. We hide known deposits, rebuild the model without them, then test whether it still finds them, with test blocks kept spatially separated so it cannot memorise nearby points. We are currently refreshing our published national skill figures so they reflect deployment-time performance, and will republish them per model. Coverage today spans the United States and Canada; the figures are model-level skill, never a specific site's measured accuracy, and never a discovery or JORC / NI 43-101 resource claim.
Does MineDSS cover lithium brine or clay-hosted lithium?
No. The platform is focused exclusively on hard-rock lithium in LCT pegmatite systems. Brine deposits in salars and sedimentary-clay lithium have different host settings and geochemical signatures and fall outside the modelled scope.
What does the model actually read to rank prospective ground?
It integrates mapped geology — favourable granite-greenstone and metasedimentary settings and structural corridors — with geophysics that resolves lithology and structure, satellite observations sensitive to alteration and weathering, and the pathfinder geochemistry of caesium, rubidium, tantalum, niobium, tin and beryllium that signals extreme magmatic fractionation. The output is an explainable ranking, not a resource estimate or drilling advice.
Other commodities we model
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