The lithium race just got a new contender.

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This week, California-based lithium developer Controlled Thermal Resources announced plans to go public through a $4.7 billion SPAC merger with Plum Acquisition Corp IV. The transaction is expected to bring about $300 million in new capital to help finance the company’s flagship lithium and geothermal project in Southern California.

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If you’re unfamiliar, Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) is a lithium company that plans to extract lithium from geothermal brine deep beneath California’s Salton Sea region, while simultaneously generating renewable electricity from the same resource.

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Think of it as a two-for-one energy play.

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Hot brine flows from underground geothermal reservoirs. That heat can be used to generate electricity. But the brine also contains dissolved lithium, which can be extracted and processed into battery materials.

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If CTR succeeds, the Salton Sea could become one of the most important lithium regions in North America.

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A big deal

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The area has long been known for its geothermal potential. But in recent years, researchers realized something else: the brine circulating beneath the region contains significant concentrations of lithium.

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That’s a big deal when you consider most of the world’s lithium today comes from hard rock mining and brine extraction in Australia, Chile, and Argentina, with China being the primary refiner and processor. 

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This, while the U.S. still produces very little lithium.  

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Of course, this isn’t just a lithium story. It’s also a technology story.

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CTR plans to use a process called direct lithium extraction (DLE) to pull lithium from geothermal brine. Compared with traditional evaporation ponds used in South America, DLE could potentially produce lithium faster, use less land, and reduce water consumption. 

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If the technology works at scale, it could dramatically expand lithium production in geothermal regions around the world.

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But that “if” is important.

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DLE is still relatively new, and scaling it commercially remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges.  Indeed, investing in this phase does come with some risk.  But if this does pan out, CTR could be a big winner for investors.

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The new oil

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Lithium has often been called the “new oil” of the electric age. And while that analogy isn’t perfect, the underlying idea is sound.

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If electric vehicles are going to continue to chip away at internal combustion market share (which is happening across the globe), then the materials that power their batteries will become some of the most strategically important resources on Earth.

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Projects like Controlled Thermal Resources represent one possible solution: extracting lithium closer to where cars are actually built. And if successful, the Salton Sea could transform from an environmental headache into something far more valuable: a cornerstone of America’s domestic battery supply chain.

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Indeed, it’s still early, but there’s no doubt that the world is transitioning away from internal combustion and towards electrification.  It may not be happening as quickly in the U.S. as it is in other parts of the world, but it is happening.  

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Invest accordingly. 

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