Hurricane Helene wasn’t ‘orchestrated’ to seize land for lithium mining in North Carolina

Misinformation followed closely behind Hurricane Helene’s destructive path, wreaking a different kind of havoc on Southeast U.S. communities.

Some social media users said people engineered the hurricane to clear land in North Carolina to mine lithium, a metal used to power batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and laptop computers.

A Sept. 29 Facebook post said, "Asheville North Carolina Sits on top of Billions of dollars of LITHIUM. Is this a coincidence that hurricane (Helene) destroyed all that area? This is the outcome of a well orchestrated man-made disaster, weather modification and geoengineering."

An Oct. 4 Instagram post’s caption read, "NC mountains are full of lithium. Was this a planned land grab for mining?"

(Screengrabs from Facebook and Instagram)

Other Instagram posts made similar claims. These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

Known misinformers Alex Jones and Stew Peters amplified this conspiracy on X and Rumble. We’ve seen claims like this before; after the Hawaii wildfires in August 2023, social media users also falsely claimed that the fires were intentionally set to mine for lithium.

Hurricane Helene didn’t result from people manipulating the weather. Experts told PolitiFact in September, shortly after Hurricane Helene made landfall, that there are no projects that can modify or create hurricanes.

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Facebook posts

stated on October 2, 2024 in a video on Facebook

The Federal Emergency Management Agency “is confiscating supplies and donations!”

The claim that the government is seizing North Carolina land for lithium mining is also "false," spokespeople for the governor’s office and the state’s emergency management joint information center said.

North Carolina Sen. Kevin Corbin, R-Macon, posted on Facebook, pleading with people to "STOP this conspiracy theory junk," listing "(the) government is trying to get lithium" from western North Carolina as one of the falsehoods he’s heard.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency responded to a similar claim about the agency "confiscating Helene survivor property" on its "rumor response" webpage. "FEMA cannot seize your property or land. Applying for disaster assistance does not grant FEMA or the federal government authority or ownership of your property or land," the agency said.

North Carolina has no active lithium mines. Two companies, Piedmont Lithium and Albemarle Corp., plan to open lithium mines in the state in the coming years. Neither project is in Asheville, one of the cities the hurricane hit hardest. Both are mines planned in areas about 25 to 30 miles west of Charlotte.

A Piedmont Lithium spokesperson said in a statement that the company has already purchased or contracted to purchase the land for its mining project and is "not at all interested in buying land" now.

Michael McKibben, an associate professor emeritus of geology at the University of California, Riverside, said these lithium projects likely won’t be as lucrative as some social media posts claim.

"The current glut in global (lithium) supplies and resulting decline in (lithium) prices have likely made them uneconomic in the near term," McKibben said, adding that final market value hinges on how expensive the metal is to mine, process and ship.

We rate the claim that Hurricane Helene was planned to seize land in North Carolina for lithium mining Pants on Fire!