Kings Mountain Is Back in the Lithium Race

Albemarle's Kings Mountain site becomes the first North Carolina lithium project to clear federal review under FAST-41, edging closer to a restart

2 Apr 2026

Kings Mountain has cleared its first major federal hurdle, and it only took about 30 years.

On March 30, Albemarle's Kings Mountain Lithium Material Processing Plant became the first lithium project in North Carolina to complete federal permitting under the FAST-41 framework, a coordination mechanism that gives qualifying infrastructure projects structured review timelines and public tracking. Nationally, it is the 12th mining project to clear this process since the Trump administration moved to accelerate the program.

The Department of Energy led the federal review and issued a final environmental assessment for a proposed concentrator facility targeting roughly 420,000 metric tons of spodumene concentrate annually. Albemarle also holds federal grant support from both the DOE and the Department of Defense, which committed $90 million in critical materials funding for mining equipment at the site.

The backstory matters here. Kings Mountain ran as a producing lithium mine for nearly half a century before closing in the early 1990s, when cheaper foreign supply undercut domestic economics. It remains one of the few confirmed hard-rock lithium deposits in the country. The road back has been long and methodical. In March 2026, Albemarle completed dewatering the open pit, pumping out 1.57 billion gallons of accumulated rainwater under a state-authorized permit to enable the technical studies needed before any restart decision.

Federal approval is a gate, not a guarantee. North Carolina state permits are still pending, and a final investment decision hinges on those clearances alongside a commercial case that has strengthened since lithium prices began recovering from a bruising 2023 to 2024 downturn. With the federal process now closed, Albemarle can advance toward prefeasibility completion and state review on a timeline that simply was not available before.

For a domestic critical minerals supply chain still largely dependent on foreign sources, Kings Mountain's progress is worth watching. The permits are moving. The pit is drained. What comes next depends on Raleigh, markets, and whether the economics hold long enough to bring an old mine back to life.