Lithium. When are we going to start mining it from the sea?
Not as far-fetched thing as one may think, as every element on the periodic table is dissolved, in some measure, in sea water. It is a matter of extracting it in some useful form.
First, extract by evaporation most of the water from the mixture of molecular diversity that is the sea, making a highly concentrated brine, then by a careful application of known techniques of crystallization rates, separate the various components of the brine. Lithium belongs to the same periodic table family as sodium and potassium, and remains in solution much longer than the sodium ion when concentrated into a stronger and stronger brine solution.
The necessary heat to concentrate this brine may come from something as simple as solar collection ponds, or the use of an atomic pile to generate endless quantities of heat to force the evaporation is also a high-tech way to accelerate the process.
The most common compound containing lithium would be lithium chloride, and it crystallizes in nearly pure form at a certain point of the drying process, which makes its recovery pretty straightforward. As there is a LOT of sea water in the world, the “ore” would never run out in the remaining life cycle of the planet earth
Engineering problem. Get to work, BASF.
The same is true for Gold, Platinum, and every other metal.
“...every element on the periodic table is dissolved, in some measure, in sea water”
There was a guy on “Shark Tank” who wanted get gold out of seawater. He didn’t get a deal.
Why not use the leftovers from desalination plants instead of dumping them back into the ocean?