Posted on 12/04/2023 12:59:42 PM PST by yesthatjallen
The hot brine in a vast underground reserve under the Salton Sea in California probably contains enough lithium to build 375 million batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), according to “Characterizing the Geothermal Lithium Resource at the Salton Sea,” a new report by the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The researchers attempted to thoroughly quantify the amount of lithium that the deep subsurface geothermal reservoir of the lake could contain.
Researchers estimate 18 million metric tons of lithium in the Salton Sea's geothermal reservoir, with at least 4 million tons already confirmed through drilling. The challenge now lies in discovering how to extract lithium from this geothermal brine on a commercial scale. Separating lithium from geothermal brine is considered a less invasive procedure than the blasting and other hard rock mining done in countries such as Australia, or the huge open-air evaporation pools in the salt flats of Latin America.
The study also notes the advantage that this type of lithium extraction is accompanied by the production of geothermal energy, which combines the production of renewable energy with the generation of materials to promote the development of electric vehicles.
“This is one of the largest lithium brine deposits in the world,” said Michael McKibben, a geochemistry professor at the University of California, Riverside, and one of the report's 22 authors. “This could make the United States completely self-sufficient in lithium and stop importing it through China.”
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at pv-magazine.com ...
Just like the Dims practically overnight went from pushing us to switch to "clean burning natural gas" to now making natural gas too expensive because they say it's killing us all.
The left's stated objective is never their real objective (typed in my best Rush voice).
California’s petroleum reserves could fuel ICE vehicles for the next 100 years, say researchers.
Yes, and the new high-speed train can haul the lithium to downtown San Francisco to be made into EV batteries produced by reformed drug addicts and homeless.
Green Jobs powering Gruesome’s Green Agenda!
and as resources dwindle, the price of replacement will cost more than the car rendering it disposable.
There’s not enough electricity to charge 375 million car sized Lithium batteries several times per week.
Where are you going to get the chargers and the utility infrastructure to get the electricity out to where it’s needed?
And when that runs out, then what? Compare that limited resource to upwards to 500 years of fossil fuels.
Won’t happen UNLESS someone is getting a kickback.
Lithium is not a power source. Lithium doesn’t power anything.
Oh ... “rare earth” elements aren’t really rare.
Lithium is used to make batteries. Batteries can be recycled, BTW.
Something has to charge and recharge the batteries.
And that’s why Tesla cars are powered by coal.
As if the green commies will let a single shovel full of dirt be moved for extracting lithium. And of course the “Save Salton Sea” groups will come out to save that accidental lake.
There’s surely some enviro reason why it can’t be mined here, but it’s OK in the Congo.
More here:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4201160/posts
Some folks are trying to open another facility in NV and are meeting opposition. Probably 1,000 x worse in cauli. Depending on who gets the kickback$.
Well this sure sounds environmentally friendly.
Not nearly enough if this article is correct...and I’m thinking right....I’m very tired.
lol...guess I’m really tired...Didn’t Biden say no digging for lithium?
Yes I anticipate the environmentalists would try to block any mining activity there.
We have great natural resources in this country, but in some cases , we’re just not allowed to use them anymore.
Starting up a brand new industrial mining operation in the Imperial Valley is going to be opposed by many people
Unlike petroleum itself though, Lithium batteries can be reprocessed and recycled.
The woke Amish in California will not spoil their land with any mining again so this report is likely moot. The will certainly allow third world countries and foreign workers have the ecological mess on their home countries and pay the jizzyha to the climate guardians for mental peace for thier actions.
They are as bad as an Indian Brahmin buying shoes from untouchables because they can’t kill and process cows. All the good but none of the pain or suffering.
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