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New lithium reserve is discovered in the USA and would be enough to produce batteries for 375 million electric cars. However, some problems still need to be resolved.
It is widely recognized that Lake Salton, located in California, has been home to a significant lithium reserve for several years. However, recent discoveries have elevated its status: a study carried out by the United States Department of Energy revealed that reserves of this precious mineral are substantially greater than previously estimated. According to the released report, the amount of lithium available in Lake Salton is enough to make batteries for about 375 million electric cars. This discovery positions the lake as one of the largest sources of lithium in the world, a crucial factor in the advancement of lithium technology. electric vehicles.
Possible shortage of lithium reserves will impact electric cars in 2025
To give you an idea, across the entire United States there are currently less than 300 million registered electric cars. However, the market is heating up and some studies indicate that there will be shortages as early as 2025.
The future scenario, combined with the enormous dependence on The Chinese market, which generates lithium in abundance, makes the discovery of the new reservoir great news for Western authorities and companies. The potential for exploration in the lithium reserve for electric car batteries is enormous, however, the challenge of removing the mineral from the ground is not far behind.
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In this way, the idea is to develop and improve techniques for extracting the mineral in the most ecological way possible. Authorities fear that traditional drilling and creation of huge evaporation pools will leave a trail of environmental destruction in their wake.
Some companies are already making plans for the extraction of lithium reserves to produce batteries for electric cars to be combined with the production of geothermal energy on site. Furthermore, licenses for exploration in the region are still required. However, in this case, the geopolitical importance of the find must exert enormous pressure for everything to happen as quickly as possible.
Understand the importance of the largest lithium reserve in California
In recent years, companies have gone to Lake Salton to extract lithium, which the auto industry needs as it shifts to producing electric cars. The mineral is the lightest metallic element on Earth and is therefore essential for electric car batteries, which must store electricity in a package that weighs as little as possible.
Additionally, with the unique geography of the Salton Sea Basin, engineers and technicians can obtain lithium with minimal environmental destruction, according to companies operating there. In other places, lithium is extracted from the earth using hard rock mining which leaves a huge disaster on the earth. In the lithium reserve in California, it naturally exists in liquid form, so extraction does not require mining or detonation.
Oceans could become a large reserve of lithium
A team from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, in Saudi Arabia, found a way to solve the issue of lithium mining, extracting the mineral through ocean water.
The scientists' aim is to prevent lithium supplies on Earth from running out and, at the same time, reduce the negative impacts generated by the activity on the environment. The team says the new method is completely affordable for extracting lithium from ocean water, providing a potentially inexhaustible supply of the mineral.
Furthermore, mining lithium from seawater would be much less harmful to the environment, as it does not require large amounts of water, as in land-based mining, which can waste up to half a million gallons of water per ton of lithium extracted.
Ocean water contains large amounts of lithium, however, in very low concentrations, making extraction of the material used in batteries for electric cars very difficult.
