A massive supply of underground lithium has been found in western Maine, reports The Maine Monitor, but there are complications:

The richest known hard rock lithium deposit in the world lies a few miles northeast of the ski slopes of Sunday River …

Yet lithium is a metal, and state regulations passed in 2017 prohibit mining for metals in open pits of more than three acres, which would be the only way to cost-effectively extract lithium at Plumbago North. 

“Because those metals have a relatively low cost, in terms of their concentration per ton or per ounce, you need to excavate large volumes of rock cheaply in order to economically and profitably produce the metal you’re interested in.”

The whole story is here.

I wasn’t familiar with the Maine Monitor, which is run by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. It’s one of a number of non-traditional organizations that are paying for actual reporting as the business plan of traditional outlets, like newspaper, fades away.