The gigafactory buildout underway right now makes it concrete: more than 30 battery cell and pack production facilities are under construction or in advanced planning across the United States and Canada, with total operating capacity expected to reach 800 to 1,000 gigawatt-hours by 2030 — up from roughly 120 gigawatt-hours in 2025.

The Alberta Geological Survey put a number on something the oil and gas industry has known for decades: there's a lot of lithium dissolved in the brine beneath this province. The survey estimated Alberta holds 82.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.

The federal government used this year's PDAC Convention to make its largest critical minerals funding push to date. The Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced more than $3.6 billion in new programs.

ExxonMobil and Chevron are both developing direct lithium extraction projects on the Smackover Formation, pumping lithium-rich brine from underground and using DLE to strip out the metal — the same basic approach NeoLithica is applying to Alberta's Leduc Formation.