Lithium prospectivity
across Australia, the USA, Canada & worldwide.
Hard-rock (LCT pegmatite) lithium, ranked and explained — validated across Australia, the United States and Canada.
Run lithium on your ground →
Where you can run lithium.
A certified national model in the countries ticked below — and anywhere else in the world through our global model.
Outside the certified countries, a run returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a per-cell confidence read — how the global model works →
What the model reads for lithium.
Every lithium target is scored against the full national evidence stack — mapped geology and rock age, gravity and magnetics, radiometrics, terrain, satellite radar and alteration — the way a geologist reads a map sheet, with a pathfinder-geochemistry signature tuned to this system.
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 validated, and where is lithium available?
Every MineDSS model is tested the hard way before it is served: we hide known deposits, rebuild the model without them, then test whether it still finds them, with test ground kept spatially separated so the model cannot memorise nearby points. A model that does not pass our release gates is not offered — for any mineral, in any country. Coverage today for lithium spans Australia, the United States and Canada. Skill is model-level, 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.
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