Posted on 04/25/2022 10:12:55 AM PDT by Rusty0604
Experts: U.S. could enter the lithium market in a very big way. U.S. must reduce its reliance on lithium imports from the lithium triangle. Geothermal technologies could unlock large lithium deposits in the U.S
The US could enter the lithium market in a very big way. At least, that’s what some experts are claiming. The global demand for lithium is on the rise, especially in the US. This should come as no surprise, as lithium-ion batteries are essential to electric vehicles and energy storage. Still, the question remains: is the US capable of breaking its reliance on lithium imports from Argentina, Chile, Russia, and China?
Lithium Production Needs to Increase Because of the increased demand for electric vehicles, lithium extraction technology has seen heavy investment. These millions aren’t just coming from the likes of General Motors either, but the US Energy Department.
Right now, much of the focus is on direct lithium extraction (DLE). These technologies aim to extract lithium from brine using filters, membranes, ceramic beads, and other “micro-level” solutions. While such methods are successful, it’s unclear whether they can be scaled up for commercial production.
DLE technology necessitates vast amounts of potable water and electricity. Before the US could boost lithium production, we would need a clear plan to provide ample amounts of both. Since these resources are not particularly abundant, it also gives detractors more ammo to criticize lithium investment.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
We have a lot of people who need lithium.
Lithium for the mentally deranged creating an environmental disaster with their toxic batteries 🤪
😎
The environmentalists will never go for this, as mining one ounce of lithium requires 24.5 kilowatts of electricity and releases 3044 cubic meters of carbon dioxide.
I just made those numbers up. But hey, why not? The greenies do that all the time. And some of them even get Nobel Prizes for it.
There is a huge lithium deposit in the Maine mountains that is worth billions of dollars but it can’t be mined due to environmental regulations.
China wishes they could have gotten a Lithium One deal from Hillary like Russia got Uranium One.
The USA has plenty of uranium, lithium, rare earths, etc. etc..
But we shut down our industries and let others take it over because greens and government said “mines are bad!”
So until the political will changes, little or none of that will get produced here.
It's not about green energy. It never was. It's about controlling the masses and enriching their cronies. Their cronies are currently in Big Oil. Every time they restrict our oil access the price of oil goes up (with the one exception being the era of fracking because free American citizens gave us access to oil on private land that the gubment had to take a while to figure out a "legal" way to control).
The article mentioned a place around San Diego, good luck with that.
Exactly.
You mean lithium isn’t “renewable”? And we have to *mine* for it?
“But we shut down our industries and let others take it over because greens and government said “mines are bad!””
Largely Funded by Russia, China, and other enemies of the US. Congress even released a report about it in...2018 iirc.
The Salton Sea is not exactly close to San Diego. Much closer to Palm Springs.
https://www.freethink.com/environment/salton-sea-lithium
Its mining, so it is automatically bad and must get past many heavy duty lawsuits, file all the impact statements, get all the permits, face another round of lawsuits, go to SCOTUS if needed.
Just ask what happened to the iron sands mine in Wisconsin. Process basically used magnets to remove iron from the sand using conveyor belts, with de-ironed sand returned to pit. Killed by above processes.
And BANG!
They’re about to dig up Kings Mountain NC my hometown which has the largest supply of lithium in the world
“ You mean lithium isn’t “renewable”? And we have to *mine* for it?”
That’s right you have to drill down for it
Dril baby drill 🤪
Nimbys won’t allow it in the US. Mostly deposits are on Federal lands. Interior/BLM = no way. No strip mining for lithium.
I’ve researched the opportunities that could be developed in the Salton Sea area, and it is a potential goldmine. The problem is it is also an environmental disaster area that is largely unlivable due to the brackish salt water and fertilizer runoff from the Central Valley area. If they were to build the geothermal plants to extract the lithium from the brine, they would also need to desalinate the Salton Sea water to support local communities.
The solution is to also build a liquid fuel breeder nuclear reactor at the abandoned Naval bombing practice area to provide electricity and process heat to desalinate and detoxify the area. It could use spent fuel from the San Onofre reactor that is sitting in dry storage and uranium/thorium from the rare earth mining facility in Mountain Pass, CA. This would reduce the cost of storing radioactive mining waste that makes our rare earth industry uncompetitive with China.
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