Kings Mountain has a long and proud history as a mining town.
This region of North Carolina is geologically rich in resources and there are numerous sites nearby.
The lithium mine was an important part of the Manhattan Project in World War II that helped develop nuclear power. Decades before this, the company that owned the mine — Rockwood — idled production from the spodumene resource here to focus on brine deposits in Chile. Kings Mountain joined Albemarle as part of its acquisition of Rockwood Holdings in 2015.
Thanks to Kings Mountain, Albemarle the only U.S.-based lithium company with multiple U.S. sites for lithium extraction, processing, and novel materials R&D to enable the next frontier of lithium-ion battery performance.
Albemarle is a leader in the industry in operations excellence. Kings Mountain can be proud that among the dozens of assets we operate worldwide, the Kings Mountain site consistently ranks at or near the top.
We also have a new, state-of-the-art, 57,000 square-foot Battery Materials Innovation Center here, making Kings Mountain one of the most sophisticated advanced lithium material sites in the world. This center allows us to innovate next-generation battery materials and help customers deliver high-performing, cost-effective batteries for the rapidly growing EV market.
