Experts have valued the lithium contained in a region of Plumbago Mountain in Newry owned by Mary and Gary Freeman at $1.5 billion. The lithium-containing mineral spodumene found in the rock at Plumbago, contains, by one estimate, a higher average lithium content “than any of the ten top spodumene-producing deposits in the world.”
This is not the first historic discovery to come from this site. In the early 1970s, several large pockets of tourmaline, after having been named the official state mineral, were found at Dunton Quarry, located in the same area owned by the Freemans today.
Read policy director Nick Murray’s full op-ed in the Portland Press Herald.