Lithium discovery in US volcano could be biggest deposit ever found
Lithium discovery in US volcano could be biggest deposit ever found
61 comments
-
China won't be pleased about that. They were predicted to control a third of the world's lithium within the next few years.
-
I was just doing my Dr Evil thing thinking about how mad China is going to be about this.
-
Wdym? the company who owns the mine is owned by a chinese company lol. Thacker Pass Lithium Mine - Wikipedia Lithium Nevada, LLC - a wholly owned subsidiary of Lithium Americas Corp, whose largest shareholder is the world's largest lithium mining company, Chinese Ganfeng Lithium.
-
They won't be able to actually start mining for 3-4 years, so they probably still will for a short period.
-
Skill issue.
-
-
America about to go to war against a volcano
-
-
Better than exploiting other countries, I suppose. But I think Lithium is a transitional battery source, and that we will move to much more efficient designs within a decade.
-
Not a chance.
Right now we’re using lithium-ion. In maybe a decade we’ll move to lithium-sulphide, and in perhaps 25 years we might see lithium-oxygen.
Either way, lithium is all you’ll see in commercially viable batteries for the next 50 years because lithium as an anode is as good as it gets on the Table of Elements.
Yes, you’ll see 100 reports per year about new battery tech but none of them will ever be scalable, safe enough, or cheap enough.
-
I mean, this kinda only applies to devices that need the highest energy density.
For situations where space isn't much of an issue, it can make more sense to use other forms of batteries that are cheaper per MWh. I agree Li-ion won't be replaced in phones etc. but for some applications that are stationary, it can make commercial sense to use something else.
-
Lithium is the most energy dense so most suitable for private transport but I think industrial and domestic storage won't be dominated by lithium in a decade or 2
-
-
There are a few promising leads in sodium, graphene, and liquid hydrogen batteries. And yeah that includes salt batteries as well
-
-
The volcanic crater is found along the Nevada-Oregon border.
The Lithium Americas Corporation “expects to begin mining in 2026. It will remove clay with water and then separate out the small lithium-bearing grains from larger minerals by centrifuging. The clay will then be leached in vats of sulfuric acid to extract lithium.”
-
All subsequent waste products will then be released into local waterways via "unfortunate accident" on a regular schedule, to maximize shareholder profits.
-
Sigh.
Sulfuric acid is one of the few chemicals that is bad to have around and can be controlled. The very first wet scrubbers to be designed (per WW2 tech here) were for dealing with it. Add water plus a calcium base like Diatomaceous earth and you get harmless sulfur-calcium salts. There are almost no local waterways and mining is very regulated.
Maybe be happy for once that more mining will be happening in a country that bothers to regulate environmental stuff and is closer to the consumer market.
-
On the bright side, that area is an endoheric basin, so at least it won't go all the way downriver to the ocean. It'll just, uh, build up in salt flats/dry lake beds instead, which obviously won't cause any problem at all.
-
LoL. I'm so glad it will be accidental
-
-
-
Now all they need is some poor immigrants to work on extracting it and they can make fat stacks
-
Something tells me there will be a new prison complex built in the area in the next few years
-
Why bring in immigrants when we have hundreds of children yearning for hard work and life building experiences.
-
The children yearn for the mines...
-
Is that the state where they signed into law that the work hours of children could be extended?
along the Nevada–Oregon border
-
-
-
Someone using the in game editor?
-
Earth Genie
-
-
Something else we won't benefit from. Nice. Uh. Go us.
-
Just imagine the shareholder value.
-
It could lead to more affordable Li-ion batteries.
-
It means we don't have to go to the Congo or through Russia, China, or others anymore. Which is a pretty big political relief because it means that we have a little bit more resource independence.
Maybe even a way we could compete on the global market if we play our cards right.
If they're smart, they'll use it to beef up our power grid for the global warming shock.
Unfortunately, I imagine @poopamo is right, and this is just going to beef up someone's bank account. Or rot in a warehouse.
-
-
China owning the vast majority of raw lithium is not the world you want to live in. The world absolutely benefits from a greater spread of lithium sources.
-
-
There's also 32 million metric tons in Niland, California that can be harvested with green energy. I assume the same could be done with this deposit. Could be very good for domestic battery production and cost.
-
If this works out and is feasible it would be something of a game changer and would weaken some of our international dependencies
-
Awesome. Now leave it there and don't let anyone touch it 😁
-
Man I can't wait for it all to get donated to the Ukraine.
61 comments