AUTONEWS

Lithium sea in lake in USA

US President Joe Biden is betting on the transition to electric mobility, but in the process wants to ensure that the paradigm shift in mobility will not harm the country's automotive industry. Producing batteries is a key factor to avoid dependence on other countries, but for that it is necessary to have enough lithium (and other materials) to meet the increase in demand.

According to the US Department of Energy, this will not be a problem thanks to Lake Salton, also known as the Salton Sea, under which there is one of the largest reserves of lithium in the world. According to Automotive News, it is estimated that from there it will be possible – by the way, economically viable – to extract around 600,000 tons of lithium per year.

Currently, large-scale lithium exploration in the US takes place only at a mine located in the state of Nevada, which means that the lithium that the country needs is supplied by countries such as China or Australia. The existence of this metal in massive deposits in geothermal pockets under Salton Lake is not new in itself, but the sudden interest in exploiting this wealth is. And this has an explanation: in one year, the price of lithium quadrupled.

In view of this price increase, which is expected to continue, General Motors (GM) and Controlled Thermal Resources have teamed up to extract the new “green” gold. This is in a very peculiar area, somewhere between the incredible of accidental nature and an imminent environmental disaster. Located on the San Andreas Fault in Southern California, Lake Salton was formed in 1905 after a rise in the water level of the Colorado River due to a miscalculation of a construction project. The floods formed the salt lake and it works as a kind of deposit. Without drainage, pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture “flow” there, so when the water level drops, these “poisons” are exposed. To counteract the formation of ultra-fine and toxic sludge, the lake has to be artificially “filled”, which is costly. With the aggravating factor that the surrounding area is barren and the area is one of the poorest in the state of California.

In this context, extracting the existing lithium in geothermal pockets sounds promising, from a social and environmental point of view. Just for the two initial stages of the project, Controlled Thermal Resources is talking about creating 1400 jobs. On the other hand, the project looks sustainable, at least on paper. The idea is to extract the lithium that is found at a depth of about 2400 meters and take advantage of the fact that it is in these superhot pockets (316ºC) to feed the turbines that generate electricity with steam. This will result in a concentrated brine from which the lithium is removed through an ion exchange process, the water being “injected” back into the soil.

The drilling works have already started, and the complex is expected to generate, in an initial phase, 50 MW of renewable electricity and 20,000 tons of lithium will be extracted per year. But these are just the numbers to boot. Controlled Thermal Resources estimates that when the various extraction points are operating at full capacity, it should be possible to collect 300,000 tons of lithium, and it is even possible to extract twice as much, according to the US Department of Energy.

Speaking to Automotive News, the director of the non-governmental organization New Energy Nexus, Danny Kennedye, highlighted the importance of this sea of lithium. “If Joe Biden wants to make batteries in the United States, this is his only chance on a large scale,” he said.

Mundoquatrorodas