EV battery news

[Rick Potter]

Please do not get political about this. I am simply posting it as news for those interested in EV's.

There has been a geothermal test site in SoCal for years which was also used for testing and it has become quite a big deal.

It is near the town of Ridley CA, which is close to the Salton Sea, which is kind of like the Dead Sea, in that it is super salty from brine and pollutants from agricultural runoff. The well goes deep and used a continuous hot brine to produce electricity.

They have just announced that the brine contains manganese, lithium, silica, cobalt and nickel. About 40% of the brine is useable rare earth metals, and they figure it is the largest brine pool in the known world. Plans are announced to build a large facility partially sponsored by GM to extract the metals for commercial use. This would make the US a major producer of Lithiium. Other large companies are also very interested.

Lots of jobs are anticipated in one of CA's poorest counties, and it will be a clean industry. The factory would remove the metals from the brine and reinsert the remaining water into the ground. This should also hopefully slow down lithium harvesting by slave labor and children in other parts of the world.

Google 'California's Lithium Lake', to get on the trail. It was in my newspaper.

Again...news, not politics.

[Bill Dufour]

Isn't lithium what they give to crazy people? Wonder how the average person living near this desert lake does on social skills.
Bill D

[Frederick Skelly]

Good news Rick. Thanks for posting.

[Steve Eure]

Even though they say its the largest known source, I wonder how long it will take for them to deplete the lake. Although, depleting the pollutants is a good thing, in and of itself. How much is it worth to them for their investment? Will they then pass off the cost to the consumer? Or will our government help to fund this project? And not to make this political, will we as taxpayers pay the burden?

[Kent A Bathurst]

"They have just announced ..........."

Well, I read about it quite a while ago, and the goog shows links going back 18+ months. So the Salton locus is possibly an important cog in a big wheel. Not sure it's breaking news, but that's OK.

Yep, appears there are accessible mineral deposits there. Not yet clear to me that it's a truly clean industry, but I'm hopeful. There is massive lithium production operations from brine evaporation in Chile's Atacama desert, which has been subject to environmental lawsuits for 4+ years. To me, that only means there may be a need for different processing methods. OK. That should be do-able.

There are advances in sourcing rare earth metals in other locations around the world. There are a couple that seem pretty awful in terms of health and safety, but that doesn't condemn an entire industry. The intensity of the focus on the EV industry and renewable power sources will drive advances in technology beyond our current capability to predict, in both supply, processing, and content requirements. Mebbe next week is the lithium-free battery discovery? Fusion guys finally show a viable economic model? Hydrogen/fuel cell guys too?

I'm anxious to see how this plays out.

[Rick Potter]

Well Kent, I guess it just took a while for our news media to discover it. Governor went there last week.

It is NOT the lake water they are using. They drill down thousands of feet to get to the super hot brine. To bad they can't purify the lake. I spent many a weekend there in the late 50's water skiing, and they used to have hydroplane races there in the 30's-60's. Anybody remember 'Miss Bardahl' Google.. hydroplane racing on Salton Sea.

[Bob Borzelleri]

Really? You ask that no one gets political and then you make a politically disparaging reference?

[Fred Perreault]

There is much more to EV batteries than lithium, cobalt and other minerals. There is also many ways to acquire and process lithium. one of the more abundant minerals in the earth. And then there is the advanced research and development into battery recycling processes. As for the Salton Sea, it has been in the geothermal and lithium news for several years now. And it does not ever seem to go very far. Mining and processing permits take years to pass muster. Governor Newsome is merely continuing the environmental efforts and bleeding edge legislation that California has been known for.
Think: CAFE standards for automobiles, or the hula hoop. Lots of things start out west, and go east.

[Scott T Smith]

I cant help but be a pessimist when it comes to any type of new mining activity in the USA. Seems to me that if the Gov regulatory agencies don't do whatever they can to stop it, the NGO "environmental" groups will stop it.

This statement isn't political, it's become a fact that any type of industry that may be considered to be hazardous has a long uphill regulatory and legal climb.

[Bill Dufour]

The modern salton sea was created by a 1905 flood that dumped river water in for two years until they patched up the canals that had collapsed. So no new water since then except for a little desert rain. The salton sea will be dry like Bonnivelle in another decade or so. So no more lithium is being added to the deposits. I believe the bottom is the San Andreas fault.
Bill D

[Kent A Bathurst]

Just clicked on a story in the Washington Post about bauxite mining in Guinea. Bauxite is main source of aluminum, and demand is skyrocketing due to weight reductions in EV. Guinea has world's largest reserves of bauxite, exports grew 5x over 2015 - 2020 to 22% of world volume.

Forecast is an area the size of Delaware will be chewed up for mining in the next 20 years. Plus roads and port facilities. Mines owned by China are the major player, having far outpaced those owned by govt, Alcoa, and Australian Rio Tinto consortium.

Used to be oil and OPEC. Fracking got US back in spot as major player in world oil market. But lithium, cobalt, aluminum.............next-gen resource battles. I bet people in Calif don't get really riled up over fracking in Okla and Penna, and I bet them folks won't get too riled up over lithium brine processing at Salton Sea.

[Ron Selzer]

Anybody remember 'Miss Bardahl' Google.. hydroplane racing

Saw Miss Bardahl run in the Seattle area as a kid, guess I am showing my age

[Malcolm McLeod]

... lithium brine processing ...

Ironically, in many areas the produced water from oil & gas operations contains commercially viable quantities of lithium. With the massive spike in lithium prices*, there will likely be a race to develop recovery methods, including those used at Salton Sea operations. Delaware Basin O&G operations in NM could supply 25% of projected US lithium market.

*-I recall it has come down recently? (don't follow it)

[Kent A Bathurst]

Malcolm - did not know that. Cool. As long as oil and gas are a "thing"

Yeah, I think lithium prices have eased lately, but that's like any commodity. Actual shortages drive up prices [see the L-N bronze #3 I just sold]. So do perceived shortages. Then they ease.

[Jim Becker]

Isn't lithium what they give to crazy people? Wonder how the average person living near this desert lake does on social skills.
Bill D

Lithium is used for a wide variety of mental health issues as this essential metal is often deficient when certain diagnoses present. As an aside...be nice. Folks with these afflictions do not choose to have them. My daughter included, Bill.