Posted on 10/22/2024 6:26:16 AM PDT by Red Badger
Researchers said in a recent article that Arkansas may have 19 million tons of lithium, which is used in rechargeable batteries for important products like phones and electric cars.
The researchers said in their article released last month in the journal Science Advances they had “calculated that there are 5.1 to 19 million tons of lithium in Smackover Formation brines in southern Arkansas,” making up “35 to 136% of the current US lithium resource estimate.”
According to a Monday release from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), “the Smackover Formation is a relic of an ancient sea that left an extensive, porous, and permeable limestone geologic unit that extends under parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.”
Lithium, which has been labeled by the USGS as a critical mineral, has been often obtained from brines or salt flats they evaporate into. According to a projection from the International Energy Agency, demand for lithium could increase by more than 40 times by 2040.
According to the article, the researchers utilized a machine-learning model trained on “published and newly collected brine lithium concentration data,” making “a map of predicted lithium concentrations in Smackover Formation brines across southern Arkansas.”
The article’s findings come from the work of both the USGS and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Office of the State Geologist, according to the USGS release.
“Lithium is a critical mineral for the energy transition, and the potential for increased U.S. production to replace imports has implications for employment, manufacturing and supply-chain resilience. This study illustrates the value of science in addressing economically important issues,” USGS Director David Applegate said in the release.
19 million tons? That should last a year. Maybe two.
Leftists will ban mining for lithium there, while they also demand we transition to depending solely on EV’s and “green” power for the grid (all of which would rely on batteries).
You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt...............
Welp, you can guess where the next hurricane and land grab will occur.
nothing say i love the environment like digging it up and trashing the scene.
> Leftists will ban mining for lithium there… <
You beat me to it. Some advocacy group will find a rare snail living there. Or maybe a study will show that the mining will contribute to Climate Change.
Then they will all get in their EV’s and drive off to a Starbucks to celebrate their victory.
The question is, can they steer a hurricane that far inland so that companies like Blackrock can buy up the land for pennies on the dollar? /sarc
Tennessee Ernie Ford 1955
“Some advocacy group will find a rare snail living there. Or maybe a study will show that the mining will contribute to Climate Change.”
Lithium mining as well as cobalt mining are terrible for the environment and for the miners
I’m watching for tge secrecy and hypocrisy
From WIKI:
Mineral resources
The Smackover Formation has been a prolific source of petroleum. The 1922 discovery of the Smackover oil field, after which the Smackover Formation is named, resulted in a sizeable oil boom in southern Arkansas.
In addition to being a petroleum reservoir, as of 2015, the brine from the Smackover Formation is the only source of commercial bromine in the United States.
A 2022 report estimated that the lithium brine in the formation has “sufficient lithium to produce enough batteries for 50 million electric vehicles.” In October 2024, federal and state researchers said there might be five million to 19 million tons of lithium, more than enough to meet the world’s demand for the battery ingredient.
Billy Boy and Evita will jump on that like a duck on a June bug
Look out Arkansas, an unnatural disaster could be in the making for you.
Wherever lithium lies it seems unnatural disasters seem to just happen. 🤔😕
There are Lepidolite mines (lithium extracted from this) in New Mexico which were abandoned when the main use was pharmaceutical. They covered the walls in these caves (I have examined personally), and now there should be a demand for the mines to be re-opened.
Time to bulldoze southern red states using an excuse.
> Lithium mining as well as cobalt mining are terrible for the environment and for the miners <
Yes indeed. But “progressives” don’t really care about that. They only care that it is not done in their backyard. Out of sight, out of mind.
We see the same thing with the illegals. Let’s welcome our new Americans! But when a group of illegals showed up on Martha’s Vineyard, they were all removed from the island pretty damn quick.
IMHO, most of them are scared to be the one to break the narrative. As an EV owner and solar owner (not because of warmageddon fears, but because I'm trying to be more self-reliant and I can produce my own power a lot easier than I can produce my own gasoline), I sometimes meet other EV owners if I take the EV on a trip and charge away from home. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone thanked me for saving the world or such. I usually show them the graph below and tell them that we'd all freak out if we knew what went into making EV's. Sometimes they say, "but who could I tell that would believe me".
Fun topic: If I'm in the south when this conversation happens, which means in the Bible Belt, I point out that the Minoan Warm Period mirrors the Era of Judges, Greek Dark Age cooling period mirrors the Era of Kings, and the Christ and the Apostles lived during the Roman Warm Period. Because they are fellow Bible believers, those are the few EV owners who I've been able to educate that the Modern Warm Period is not the freakazoid unique thing that leftists make it out to be. Most of them still fear warmageddon. But a few of them said I made them rethink their cult religion to come back to believing more in God and the Bible.
“May have”?? any drilling yet? exploration is expensive. A mine is 20 years away minimum....if ever
Probably a strip mine operation will be the process..............
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