RIVERSIDE – At the bottom of the Salton Sea in southern California, they came across huge reserves of lithium. Scientists discovered it as part of research funded by the local Ministry of Energy. The intention was to find out how much of this substance is at the bottom of a huge body of water.
The Salton Sea is the largest lake in the USA. Because of the white shade of the sand, it attracted the attention of scientists who investigated how much lithium (also known as white gold) is hidden in it. And there were really a lot of them. An incredible 18 million tons worth $540 billion is said to be at the bottom of the lake. Scientists have previously confirmed that there are four million tons of lithium in the lake. From such a huge amount, it would be possible to make batteries for an incredible 375 million electric vehicles. The United States would thus become the leading country in the chemical industry, overtaking China.
“This is one of the largest deposits of lithium solution in the world. Thanks to this, the US could become completely self-sufficient in the production of lithium and could stop importing it from China.” said geochemistry professor and study co-author Michael McKibben of the University of California, Riverside. California Governor Gavin Newsom previously called the lake the Saudi Arabia of lithium.
The new discovery means that this body of water is the largest source of it in the world. Climate journalist Sammy Roth said: “They found that there’s potentially enough lithium to supply batteries for 375 million electric vehicles, which is more vehicles than are on the road in the United States today. So if we could get all that lithium, that would be incredible.”
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However, mining the lake will be quite complicated and will reportedly require geothermal production wells to extract the lithium-rich brine. After it dissolves, the liquid is pumped back underground. The drilling will affect not only the lives of the 180,000 residents who live near the Salton Sea, but also the water supply in the Colorado River. This is because a huge amount of water will be needed to complete the process.
2023-12-26 15:30:00
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