There is enough lithium in brine in Southern Arkansas to supply millions of EVs with batteries each year. The process is called DLE - direct lithium extraction and is less costly than surface mining. The brine has previously been used for bromine, the lithium wasn't being used. The brine mines stretch from Texas to Florida - a formation called the Smackover. The process is environmentally safe because the processed brine is injected back into where it came from deep underground. There are multiple types of DLE
@MudflyWatersman2 ай бұрын
Not cheap...... That's why it's not being done. The only things profitable at current lithium prices are high grade spodumene and chile/argentina salar. Mining is about concentration..
@stewartallison88482 ай бұрын
Sandy Munro has just invested in a lithium extraction business. It’s on You Tube. It shows how the process is done. Not a difficult job.
@user-vl5cg1zi4m2 ай бұрын
@@MudflyWatersman Supposedly enough lithium in the Marcellus shale waste water to support 40% of US lithium needs. That region is already producing lithium.
@PyroShields2 ай бұрын
Arkansas has the most reckless cops in the US.
@pin653712 ай бұрын
Alberta in Canada is already doing that as well. The company working on it built out their pilot project last year and is now working on the full scale project. The advantage of this is the speed they can scale up. Especially in areas where they have been doing a lot of drilling already for oil they have all the data so they dont need to guess how much lithium they will be able to extract.
@AndyInTheUK2 ай бұрын
The EV haters say that Lithium mining is environmentally damaging and that there is not enough Lithium in the world if everyone switched over to an EV. Actually, Lithium is plentiful, and the environmental damage is mostly as a result of needing lots of fresh water to extract the Lithium. Unfortunately Lithium is most accessible in very dry places, where fresh water is least accessible. However, the amount of water being used to extract Lithium globally is a tiny fraction of the amount of water used to grow coffee. So, if an EV hater tells you that Lithium mining is damaging the planet, ask him how much coffee he drinks. This video is awesome. Thanks Sam!
@Thunderrolls872 ай бұрын
And lithium is mined with diesel powered earth moving equipment so its counter productive for the so called environmentalists. I will keep my ICE vehicles. EVs are a trend and a faze that will and is already starting to pass.
@jezza65752 ай бұрын
@@Thunderrolls87How much coffee do you drink?😂
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
EV haters also think that lithium batteries are consumabke while coal is green and recyclable, instead of the other way around
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
@Thunderrolls87 Lithium *can* be mined using battery electric vehicles, and as more battery electric vehicles are produced, the cost of battery powered mining and transport goes down I will keep my ice car fails to realise that ICE cars are also built using material transported in ICE vehicles, what you actually want to do is have an ICE car built by EVs, but by then, noone will sell ICE cars any more because they will be too expensive So yes, by all means, keep your ICE vehicle, unless you plan to replace it soon, it may be your last
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
@@jezza6575 the idea that cost curves aren't real, the moon landing was faked, and the earth is flat, are all a symptom of one undeniable truth The bell curve is real
@charlesrovira57072 ай бұрын
*Lithium,* being a chemical element, can be used over and over again, meaning it can be recycled, unlike long-chain hydrocarbons.
@Withnail19692 ай бұрын
Not as simple as that, dum dum.
@LegendaryInfortainment2 ай бұрын
Redwood Materials must know a thing or three. Recovering, on average, more than 95% of materials like nickel, cobalt, copper, aluminum, lithium and graphite used in a lithium-ion battery produces a circular supply chain that's short only five percent or so. Not too very expensive to do either, making it very profitable.
@timbrown93052 ай бұрын
🤣🤣🤣 What a completely unnecessary statement. This sounds like a gen Z or younger statement. Go get a job.
@seamon97322 ай бұрын
@@Withnail1969 Actually simpler than you think. There are processes that reach 70% recycling efficiency, which isn't too shabby. And we're still in the infancy of Lithium recycling. Also, he's right, it's an element, so it's much easier to recycle.
@michaelmcnally23312 ай бұрын
Some people,will disagree. Wood pellets are considered green as whilst hey emit carbon then created from wood grown specifically for wood pellets. This growth pulls carbon from atmosphere to grow the tree which is then cut down and then burned thus releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere which then pulled out to grow next trees. I personally have no idea how considered green but officially classed as carbon neutral as only emission is what pulled from atmosphere. Oil and gas basically same but over a much longer period of time. Formed from dead plants and animals which will have taken carbon to grow, so releasing the carbon that used to grow the plants etc originally.
@efemdesign2 ай бұрын
Ive been to the Salton Sea. Its a ghost town. The smell is very strong to dead fish or Boiled rotting eggs. Decrepit buildings sprinkled all over. Crazy to think less than 100 years ago this was a big bustling lake with lake front property. I have seen old videos of the promo video ads for the community back in the 1950s
@bobwallace97532 ай бұрын
The Salton Sea is not a natural body of water. I was formed by accident and there's no longer enough available water in that area to maintain it.
@Withnail19692 ай бұрын
The Salton Sea was one of the reasons the Hoover Dam was built.
@RicardoK-ng5ch2 ай бұрын
I live in San Diego close to the area, its great news to hear they are finally going to use that spot for something useful. If you look up Desert shores the area is hurting economically and definitely needs the income as well.
@Mrbfgray2 ай бұрын
And it's already a toxic wasteland, not much you can extract to make it worse. But leave it to Commifornia to find excuses to thwart it for 'environmental' reasons.
@AllDogsAreGoodDogs2 ай бұрын
Slab City!
@hudsonfisk20412 ай бұрын
Im a Californian and have spent time by the Salton Sea which was at one time a popular destination for vacationers. Now however, it is a stagnant cesspool since water has been diverted away from it. Yet I predict, our regulators, in their infinite wisdom, the type of which seems to thrive in California, will opose and impeed any efforts of companies to mine the lithium there in the guise of “protecting the environment” while the obvious reality is, mining the lithium there would be a blessing for that thoroughly depressed and dilapidated area.
@skagi41822 ай бұрын
They will oppose the extraction until they are provided with a hefty "fee". Aka they'll tax the crap out the miners just like they arr doing to the rest of us Californias.
@LogistiQbunnik2 ай бұрын
It really is amazing to see how fast development is going now that there is demand and money therefore going into research into this. Shame we did not start doing this decades ago (we would be in a MUCH better place both with knowledge, and avoiding a lot of destruction), but at least we are now thoroughly on a path to change our energy sector and mining of these metals.
@TurfSurf2 ай бұрын
Been there, visited the ghost town, everything was abandoned and very a few people still there, I am so glad they can do something about it!
@Wendy-nm9zw2 ай бұрын
Old Sam, has been known to stretch the truth and fudge the numbers ... alot !
@robertfonovic35512 ай бұрын
Sam's a human bungee cord.
@vincedavid72562 ай бұрын
The problem with cheap sources of lithium is that lithium battery recyling will halt cuz it will be cheaper to extract new lithium, so governments should incentivize recycling thru both "carrot and thr stick" policies, else we'll end up with a huge environmental problem from lithium batteries being discarded
@Hybridog2 ай бұрын
Pretty simple to create regulation making it illegal to not recycle the batteries. You can also require manufaturers to use a certain percent of recycled lithium in any new batteries. I'm not convinced lithium will be the norm for more than a few decades before some other chemistry becomes dominant.
@terryward14222 ай бұрын
Another great video explaining the chemistry and the processes for extracting lithium from brines. I am sure many of your subscribers will benefit from this update and be better able to discuss EV battery chemistry with the nay sayers them meet.
@rtz5492 ай бұрын
Lead acid car batteries are in a sort of closed loop system. The old ones get made into new ones 100%. The plastic case, lead, acid. I think the same will be for the EV batteries once enough are made. So any demands on mining will lessen in time.
@charlesrath48882 ай бұрын
There has been a significant discovery of lithium in an extinct American volcano. Here's a breakdown of the key details: Location: The discovery was made in Thacker Pass, located on the border of Oregon and Nevada in the United States. Estimates suggest the deposit could hold 20 to 40 million metric tons of lithium, with a maximum potential of 120 million tons
@ozbandit2 ай бұрын
Don't give up on the LMFP batteries. Energy density benefits are sizeable.
@swordedaffair2 ай бұрын
The lithium is in the aquifer near and below the Salton Sea (not the Salton Sea itself). There are already geothermal plants there, exploiting the heat in these aquifers.
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
Btw, for people in chat, there was a time when people said alluminium was a fad, that it was too expensive, would never catch on, there is a 2 kilogram alluminium crest at the top of a great American monument the monument is almost as large as the great tower in Paris that noone knows the name of, but the one thing they could afford to cap it off, a tiny amount of this rare and expensive alluminium Nowadays, cars are made out of alluminium, because it is cheap and commonplace, because they discovered ways to extract alluminium from sources previously too expensive to make it worth their while, and now it is cheap and common place Regarding lithium, it is inevitable even without these new methods, I just wanted to point out the similarities
@ronblack78702 ай бұрын
you mean the washington monument which is the name everyone knows it by . named for george washington our first president
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
@@ronblack7870 I think it was something like that, I know it was solid stone I have never been to your country or anything, I was just using that as a reference
@EveryoneWhoUsesThisTVАй бұрын
Kings once showed off by having banquets with aluminum cutlery.... :)
@toddlichtenwalter20412 ай бұрын
Great report, will use in my science classroom. Thank you!
@robertfonovic35512 ай бұрын
Lord help your poor students. People like you are the reason I sent my children to private schools.
@toddlichtenwalter20412 ай бұрын
@@robertfonovic3551 I am complimenting him for his presentation of the information. Your or my opinion of whether society should be extracting Lithium has no bearing on the facts of the science behind the process. I educate them on the science and engineering behind many different energy harvesting methods from solar to nuclear. An informed public is essential to craft and vote on the choices countries take. Sounds like you want to shield your child from science and understanding. That is your choice, albeit not the best one. And yes, I teach in leading international private schools in Africa, Middle East and South America- students of ambassadors, leading …
@toddlichtenwalter20412 ай бұрын
@@robertfonovic3551 I am complimenting him for his presentation of the information. Your or my opinion of whether society should be extracting Lithium has no bearing on the facts of the science behind the process. I educate them on the science and engineering behind many different energy harvesting methods from solar to nuclear. An informed public is essential to craft and vote on the choices countries take. Sounds like you want to shield your child from science and understanding. That is your choice, albeit not the best one. And yes, I teach in leading international private schools in Africa, Middle East and South America- students of ambassadors, leading businessmen, and NGOs who go into the top universities in the world. Ooops, you know they say about making assumptions…
@terryward14222 ай бұрын
Think about the advantage cheap locally sourced lithium could give Tesla's energy storage business in North America and maybe the global makers as well. This could be bigger than we think...
@alanbaker-uh5mm2 ай бұрын
Wow Sam. This was a real test for your vocabulary 🤓
@robertfonovic35512 ай бұрын
Hahaha
@Bemx2k2 ай бұрын
Great News
@jasonmoquin2 ай бұрын
We have a massive amount of lithium under the Great Salt Lake in Utah ,as well. They discovered it last year and it rivals the size of the one found in California.
@joelado2 ай бұрын
I remember hearing years ago about the "playa" of the Salton Sea, and the environmental problems that its concentrated, sea salt, fish bones and farm chemical runoff was doing to the inhabitants children of the area by breathing that stuff when it became wind blown. I remember at the time thinking, they extract lithium from saltwater aquifers and then dry them out in large flat ponds. They take the dried out leftover salts and extract the lithium from that. What is the difference from that and environment along the salt flat like "playa" on the edges of the Salton Sea? The Salton Sea has super high salt water that is way too salty now for fish to live in, the many geothermal plant there are powered by hot salt water aquifers. It has large unpopulated flat desert plains for drying. It seemed to me that it had everything needed to extract lithium. Low and behold, it seems that now everyone else is discovering it for the lithium gold mine that I thought it would be all those many years ago. Tony Seba call me.
@stevebannell29482 ай бұрын
The father of a friend bought a plot there in the 50's when it was promoted as a holiday resort.
@RawandCookedVegan2 ай бұрын
Very interesting Sam. Thanks.
@mntbighker2 ай бұрын
Lithium isn't the problem. Rare earth elements are. China holds the monopoly on rare earths, and the US allowed the last US rare earth mine to go bankrupt years ago.
@jamestucker80882 ай бұрын
We already have geo thermal plants extracting the brine for the heat. Plans are on the way to extract the lithium from the brine before it is pumped back into the ground. This will happen a lot fasted then most people expect.
@ahaveland2 ай бұрын
Quite logical really, using battery chemistry to create battery materials to create batteries!
@lonridgway27282 ай бұрын
great news story, thank you
@blaydCA2 ай бұрын
This is old news if you're semi -local to the area. There's geothermal plants and some small prototype extraction plants currently in progress last I heard.
@midwestslim2 ай бұрын
is the sodium mention in the article of possible use for sodium ion batteries?
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
Also, battery grade lithium isn't about mining, it is about refining, we need more lithium refining and mining, but the refining side is the harder one
@MudflyWatersman2 ай бұрын
Refining unfortunately has to be tailored to the material your processing..... As well as the specifications of the customer your supplying
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
@MudflyWatersman this is very true, but there are very big customers in battery manufacturing that want a looot of lithium
@MudflyWatersman2 ай бұрын
@@nyanbrox5418 All the battery manufacturing is in China and there is no shortage of material... Nor will there ever be long-term..,... Only supplies that can be met at different prices
@nyanbrox54182 ай бұрын
@MudflyWatersman there is still a major need for lithium refining, hence the Chinese Government is subsidising it so much
@BrianPerrico2 ай бұрын
Hi Sam; What’s up with Tesla’s lithium site they purchased? Never heard of anything after the purchase a couple years ago? Thx! Love what you do
@MdSteel72 ай бұрын
Amazing
@sparkysho-ze7nm2 ай бұрын
Top notch production mate of extremely relevant information well delivered good job 🖕. Yehehe
@ricardophelps63232 ай бұрын
Li for EV's and Na for home storage seems to be the way it's going though Na production won't ramp up for a while yet. According to NorthVolt the production systems are the same for Li & Na so switching between the chemistries should be easy.
@markrowland1366Ай бұрын
An Australian process, announced their year does this already. Sam you presented it. Takes 45 minutes and reused it's chemicals.
@marcovaldovinos47542 ай бұрын
Lithium refining is probably what drives price up bc the final manufacturing has to be done in ultra low humidity. Even clean rooms are not suitable for the final refining of lithium. You should do a show on the full manufacturing process. With emphasis of final stage production. IMO solid state batteries is what EV market needs.
@rtz5492 ай бұрын
An above ground pipe of 6" or 8" of PVC could be ran from the Salton Sea to the Gulf of California. It is 120 miles long. 6" pvc is sold in 20' lengths at roughly $10 each. 264 piece of pipe per mile at $2,640 per mile. 31,680 lengths of 20' pvc linked together for $316,380 total. That's really cheap for that much pipe for that long of distance. Look at pumps and gallons per hour. Could run a large diameter pipe or more then one pipe. Easy low cost project to get the Salton Sea full again.
@Kingramze2 ай бұрын
Eventually, those grid storage lithium batteries will be recycled for use in vehicles as their lifespan ends and they're replaced with another chemistry like sodium. Lithium (LiFeP especially) is great for vehicles, but for a stationary plant where weight and volume aren't as much of an issue, there's arguably already better, cheaper tech. As we start to recycle old EVs, laptops, phones, and massive grid storage centers, that Li will be freed up for vehicles and at a much cheaper cost than mining as well.
@chrisward56262 ай бұрын
Grid storage batteries are not like car batteries, they will last 4 times longer as it dosnt matter how low they degrade . It’s not moving
@Kingramze2 ай бұрын
@@chrisward5626 They still light up like roman candles every so often randomly, and the chemistry breaks down at the anodes eventually as well. They may last 4x longer in theory, but in practice, they're in the elements and tied to an electrical grid that can send power surges to make them fail early.
@chrisward56262 ай бұрын
@@Kingramze that makes no sense at all . Why would they get a power surge when they have complex bms systems? What does a fire have to do with them lasting longer ?
@Kingramze2 ай бұрын
@@chrisward5626 The fires were caused by uncontrolled runaway from the failed batteries - and those BMSs didn't prevent it. I don't know if you're aware, but a lot of the older chemistries the grid storage systems were made from have a much higher failure rate than the chemistries used in current Tesla cars. (Look at the older Tesla battery pack failure rate vs more current ones - and I'm not talking about LFP batteries which are obviously more stable) Some of the internals of each cell that were thought to be inert - like the glues - ended up not being so inert. As for the BMS, doesn't help with deterioration of the batteries as much as you'd think. Those are high voltage systems with rapid charge / discharge cycles, and we know that fast-charging deteriorates batteries faster as seen from the numerous Tesla battery issues from fast charging. Now, also take into account the fact that these are connected to high voltage wires that can do some serious damage if the power factor is off or a surge or backfeed, you can get a spark that jumps several feet and burns through cabling, much less cares about whatever BMS you want to feed it through.
@take5th2 ай бұрын
Dalton sea also has potential unexploded ordinance buried within.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
At the Navy test base on the southwest end. 20K acres. Probably no UXB but lots of weird 'stuff', like rocket propellant .
@cleanairpeople32292 ай бұрын
Young unknowing buyers are an easy sell If it's Lithium or Lithium base or like most rechargeables.. Beware ! This from the federal government web site. Here you go, in plain English . Lithium batteries are regulated as a hazardous material under the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 C.F.R., Parts 171-180). Exposure to Lithium can cause loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. ► Lithium can cause headache, muscle weakness, twitching, blurred vision, loss of coordination, tremors, confusion, seizures and coma. Clean energy ? .. No, I don't think so ! This isn't for me or my family. Good luck, with .. clean energy !
@null_matrix14672 ай бұрын
I don't understand your concern. You'd need to eat the batteries to get those problems.
@milescoleman9102 ай бұрын
Yeah honestly I worked on engines and got lithium grease all over my hands daily. I guess I wouldn’t know but my brain does seem to still be working fairly well.
@bugtusslealien39312 ай бұрын
And oil with all it products are non toxic? Uh yeah!!! 😂😂😂😂 🤪🤪🤪 You better throw out all your lithium ion powered devices. 😂😂😂😂 WHAT A BRAIN YOU ARE!!! 🤪🤪🤪
@adr2t2 ай бұрын
More then likely we will see NaLi batteries in the future either as a mix pack designs or as a single battery design, so more or less if there is Li supply, it can be used. Li still has the benefit of being a smaller element over Na. Yet, if we can't get them safer, its still a bit open if we should be using Li at all. Hopefully we can get solid state batteries on the go and fix a number of those issues even if it means a thicker layer of Li if we have the supply.
@achangyw2 ай бұрын
Excellent for consumers.
@robertfonovic35512 ай бұрын
Bahahaha
@MagnumiPad2 ай бұрын
😮Tesla and Panasonic have th Giga Factory In Nevada, more are on their way. Tesla has lithiumproesing plan being built.
@TheBooban2 ай бұрын
It's long been said rare earths are not actually rare. Just that nobody except China decided to do something about it.
@killeresk2 ай бұрын
That would be good and will hopefully bring down cost.
@klippe2 ай бұрын
lithium is also in the flooded mines of southern england however it is diluted.
@rogermckenzie27112 ай бұрын
With upcoming battery chemistries, will lithium even be required?
@100c0c2 ай бұрын
The biggest companies still invest in Lithium batteries, so yes.
@yulusleonard9852 ай бұрын
cheaper
@larryc16162 ай бұрын
Sodium ion batteries will crater lithium prices even further
@1rjona2 ай бұрын
Question is not if there are enough lithium minerals. Question is does US have battery factories to make enough EV batteries it needs.
@favesongslist2 ай бұрын
Does the US have Lithium battery factories that are not Chinese like LG Chem? I know Tesla is building one for 2025.
@1rjona2 ай бұрын
@@favesongslist lets see if they can make enough US made batteries. Meanwhile BYD and CATL makes enough batteries today to produce for themselves and Tesla and other EV makers that they export world wide
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
The problem is that battery plants don't just spring up overnight. This isn't China. We have NIMBYs like the folks in western Michigan who are agin' it.
@12pentaborane2 ай бұрын
@@jamesvandamme7786 In the NIMBY's favour Detroit is basically an abandoned brownfield ripe for development. Lots of factory space to be swapped from milling engine blocks to wrapping batteries.
@100c0c2 ай бұрын
The US is not even 10% EV yet, so plenty of time to get up and running. US factories are not for export. 😂
@Gizmo824772 ай бұрын
Ground zero in Dimock Pa here. So all of the billions of gallons of water that has been used in fracking this area has lithium in it for recovery. 1 they don’t pump lithium down the hole but lithium comes out with the waste water. What else comes up from 500 million years ago. 2. For years the oil companies have been discharging and making ponds from the wastewater. So where is that lithium (The water ta ble ).
@andrewwuttke8542 ай бұрын
Australian company "Vulcan" is already working on this type of extraction in Germany
@JohnBrown-pw3bz2 ай бұрын
The Salton sea was Formed in 19 0 5. When the colorado river overflowed.
@randyhess2602 ай бұрын
The Democrat’s would never allow mining in the USA
@DrMikel-dp4kb2 ай бұрын
Democrats just like other countries to ruin and poison their land by Mining
@dogfacedponysoldier872 ай бұрын
Vote ‘em out.
@Arkane1172 ай бұрын
They would if they can get enough tax money out of it..
@dnomyarnostaw2 ай бұрын
Republicans making up statistics again. Google this " New federal data shows the Biden administration approved 3,557 permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands in its first year, far outpacing the Trump administration’s first-year total of 2,658."
@mladenmikesertic29902 ай бұрын
Did you know: Salton Sea is well below sea level... Rivers from Mexico flow north into the sea... San Andreas Fault runs right by it- Indicating a Plate boundary... South end had volcanos where many geothermal plants generate electricity... Currently Salton Sea area is very unhealthful due to dust storms... Should the San Andreas slip, there is a possibility for the Sea of Cortez to reach up to Palm Springs...😎
@hamsterg0d2 ай бұрын
Cool
@Guvament_bs2 ай бұрын
That was interesting. The way it was read from the script, It sounded a bit like Sam didn't know the difference between iron and ion.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
The captions get wonky. Thank Google.
@Guvament_bs2 ай бұрын
@@jamesvandamme7786 not my subtitles, the one he was reading from.
@TFXJac2 ай бұрын
Yet another great Wallstreet fund raising scheme. Production and processing is another day story.
@chuckrogers55672 ай бұрын
Sam, another helpful video. Aquifer is pronounced as Aqua… fur. FYI, my friend.
@dwchen12 ай бұрын
The price of Lithium itself decreased a lot in the last 10 years is due to Chinese invented method of extracting Lithium in fraction of a cost compare to previous method. If now the US invented another method of extracting Lithium for a fraction of a cost that's good for them too.
@ctuna20112 ай бұрын
would it be good to get the Sodium out at the same time?
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
And do what with it? Sodium is really cheap.
@oatlegOnYt2 ай бұрын
The problem of this method is not the potential lithium we can extract, but the quantity of water that needs to be processed to obtain a quantity of lithium. On other words, current processed water brings little lithium per time. To scale lithium to the levels we need, means move the water requirement way beyond of current needs. I will try to explain with an example. Currently there is some demand of fracking. That brings X litters of waste water, and this process can extract a certain amount (small) of lithium from that water. Because that water is a waste, the extraction of that water could be considered free (paid by the fracking part). Buy through this, the lithium extracted is not enough. If you want to scale the lithium, you need to process a lot more water, but that's way beyond from the fracking extraction, so you need another source, paid directly, to obtain that water, which destroy the economics of the process. It's cheap, as the water processed is bind to other process that generates that water equally, but that's not enough to generate enough lithium. You can scale it, but then you need to multiply the water sources ONLY FOR THIS PURPOSE, which raises the price a lot. Still... any new technology is good.
@hardi.howdy.9832 ай бұрын
Do you really expect Sam to understand such nuances? He gets excited reading a headline 😁
@chasx70622 ай бұрын
Thought China had moved onto sodium batteries?
@dadsonworldwide32382 ай бұрын
This is a perfect example of what artificial intelligence and ability to simulate elements in various critical extremes can do in material sciences and this exactly the first stage of new paradigm computational infrastructure as regions self sufficiency and the ability to develop in the middle of nowhere America to operate business that only major city's could support in the past that should explode . The ability to support humans on the moon or Mars and even mining asteroids will eventually draw massive investment if this race begins
@jamesdubben36872 ай бұрын
Wonder how this compares with EnergyX.
@johnwang99142 ай бұрын
Mind you, lithium can also be recovered from depleted oil wells as oil reserves are basically ancient sea bottoms... Lithium is one of the most common elements in the Universe. The only reason why we have limited lithium supplies is because there hasn't been much of a demand for lithium till recently.
@binarybob96442 ай бұрын
What..?? You're saying Lithium is one of the most common elements in the universe. WRONG! Lithium only exists on Earth. Lithium is number 25 in terms of "abundancy" and is defined by the Minerals Council of Australia as a comparatively rare element found in some rocks and brines but ALWAYS in low concentrations. That's why you have to shift 12 tonnes of overburden to extract sufficient Lithium for just one EV battery. Lithium mining is every bit as environmentally destructive as open cut coal mining and drilling for oil.
@snappingclam88012 ай бұрын
Another fossil fuel benefit: "The discovery of the potential for thousands of tons of lithium to be extracted annually from wastewater generated by fracking in the Marcellus Shale leaves proponents of a green energy future at a crossroads, Republicans said Thursday. "A University of Pittsburgh study suggested processing byproducts from natural gas production in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale basin could potentially meet nearly half of U.S. lithium needs."
@samsungtvset33982 ай бұрын
Would not the waste from a seawater desalination plant be a concentrated source to extract lithium and possibly other materials from?
@tlister672 ай бұрын
Lithium is very dilute in seawater, could be done but more concentrated sources are more economical.
@skylershank93092 ай бұрын
Actually there was a company that tried and went out of business. I'd like to see it extracted but like everything else it's gonna take time. And the cost of extraction will not be cheap.
@TooOldToCare-kl3co2 ай бұрын
I have one question about Ev’s, where do you propose all the copper that is needed for them, come from? I spoke to someone that is in the industry, ( quite high up in the food chain),and he basically laughed when I asked him, he then stated that for supposed numbers of Ev’s that governments think are achievable, more copper would have to mined, then what has been in history. His next statement was, the price of copper will most likely increase as demand increases, pushing prices of Ev’s up as the shortfall of supply starts to happen.
@aaronsinspirationdaily48962 ай бұрын
There are already batteries not using copper.
@TooOldToCare-kl3co2 ай бұрын
@@aaronsinspirationdaily4896 what about the cables, etc . Typically ev’s use 5 to 10 times the amount of copper in cables compared to ice cars.
@matiashamalainen79652 ай бұрын
@@TooOldToCare-kl3co You can replace those with other metals, but it will affect the energy efficiency somewhat. It'll be compensated by larger and better/cheaper batteries though.
@javelinXH9922 ай бұрын
@@TooOldToCare-kl3co It is an issue to be tackled and it is pushing up the price of copper. There are things you can do such as pushing up the voltage and reducing the amps. You can use thinner copper cables then. Effective? I don’t know. The next years are good news for copper mining companies.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
Reducing body wiring is an ongoing R&D topic. They are going to central controllers and ethernet to lights, sensors and other gadgets, replacing lots of little controller boxes made by suppliers and wires all over the place.
@keffinsg2 ай бұрын
If this tech enables low concentrations of Li to be extracted, then the Chilean brine will produce a whole lot more Li too. To to mention all the other salt lakes that will being viable for extraction too.......There will be a price crash. US investors in Salton Sea extraction will be crying. But consumers around the world will he happy. China will be happy too, because they will be producing all those devices being powered by the super cheap Li batteries.
@alexishart19892 ай бұрын
'He'? Chong Liu don't look like no bloke, Samuel.
@CharlesBrown-xq5ug2 ай бұрын
《 Arrays of nanodiodes promise full conservation of energy》 A simple rectifier crystal can, iust short of a replicatable long term demonstration of a powerful prototype, almost certainly filter the random thermal motion of electrons or discrete positiive charged voids called holes so the electric current flowing in one direction predominates. At low system voltage a filtrate of one polarity predominates only a little but there is always usable electrical power derived from the source Johnson Nyquest thermal electrical noise. This net electrical filtrate can be aggregated in a group of separate diodes in consistent alignment parallel creating widely scalable electrical power. As the polarity filtered electrical energy is exported, the amount of thermal energy in the group of diodes decreases. This group cooling will draw heat in from the surrounding ambient heat at a rate depending on the filtering rate and thermal resistance between the group and ambient gas, liquid, or solid warmer than absolute zero. There is a lot of ambient heat on our planet, more in equatorial dry desert summer days and less in polar desert winter nights. Refrigeration by the principle that energy is conserved should produce electricity instead of consuming it. Focusing on explaining the electronic behavior of one composition of simple diode, a near flawless crystal of silicon is modified by implanting a small amount of phosphorus on one side from a ohmic contact end to a junction where the additive is suddenly and completely changed to boron with minimal disturbance of the crystal pattern. The crystal then continues to another ohmic contact. A region of high electrical resistance forms at the junction in this type of diode when the phosphorous near the ĵunction donates electrons that are free to move elsewhere while leaving phosphorus ions held in the crystal while the boron donates a hole which is similalarly free to move. The two types of mobile charges mutually clear each other away near the junction leaving little electrical conductivity. An equlibrium width of this region is settled between the phosphorus, boron, electrons, and holes. Thermal noise is beyond steady state equlibrium. Thermal transients where mobile electrons move from the phosphorus added side to the boron added side ride transient extra conductivity so they are filtered into the external circuit. Electrons are units of electric current. They lose their thermal energy of motion and gain electromotive force, another name for voltage, as they transition between the junction and the array electrical tap. Aloha
@M13x13M2 ай бұрын
Hardly damaging since it's an artificial lake that dried up . After the huge rainfall this year is now a sea again.
@JoeyBlogs0072 ай бұрын
The issue for the west is not the supply of Lithium, but the production of batteries requiring Lithium. Western manufacturing is going down the gurgler.
@michaelberger66992 ай бұрын
The Inflation Reduction Act has incentivized building all sorts of industrial production. From resource extract, refining, to manufacturing. A couple chip fans have already broken ground.
@JoeyBlogs0072 ай бұрын
Hopefully it's not too little too late.
@icosthop99982 ай бұрын
@JanettaLatty You are very Quick ! You even beat the crypto scammers 👍
@jamesdonaghy91432 ай бұрын
Sam! You're saying aquifer wrong. Sounds like someone spelt it wrong.
@thedjinn132 ай бұрын
The US is a hotspot for most minerals, just have to find a state it's in, Alaska alone could supply us with a ton of materials but it's "bad for the environment" so the US would rather have other countries mine so we can stay clean
@RagnarinVa2 ай бұрын
Let’s not forget that batteries can be recycled to recapture core materials.
@AtomicHermit2 ай бұрын
There are only 525,960 minutes in a year. So at a run rate of 250,000 vehicles per year, that is a vehicle approximately every two monutes. TEven without building operations, tansporting vehicles from production to logistics on the surface roads will take longer than two minutes Due to the avoidance of surface traffic, the tumnel should reduce transport tome to less than 2 minutes, and if necessary, could be paralleled. This avoids a bottleneck and as such is imdeed nevessary to meet delivery goals, rather than a marketting or tunnel-pride project.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
Tunnel??
@goldcountryruss70352 ай бұрын
Salton Sea is one hot stinky mess. Removing the lithium certainly can't hurt the situation and could potentially become a foundational part of reclaiming the whole area. There is also a lot of wind driven dust pollution from dry parts of the sea (lake) bed.
@fyeofyeo4022 ай бұрын
The problem is if the Salton Sea ever gets dried, the toxic substance will get airborne. If the method shrinks it, other environmental disasters might occur.
@swordedaffair2 ай бұрын
It is actually talking about extracting lithium from the deep aquifers near/below the Salton Sea - not from the Salton Sea itself.
@matiashamalainen79652 ай бұрын
Couldn't the treated water just be recycled back into the sea?
@AnalystPrime2 ай бұрын
Formation of Salton Sea was an environmental disaster in the first place, it is natural that it dried up.
@yammybolo2222 ай бұрын
Lithium is too cheap now to make this feasible. Lithium America’s just got approval for mining Thacker Pass in Nevada and a $1B govt loan. That will be producing lithium long before the Salton Sea and it truely has massive lithium reserves to produce for many decades.
@FrankGallagherr2 ай бұрын
Gavin Newsom will tax it to death
@Myrslokstok2 ай бұрын
It will be called dead valley!
@albertiwong2 ай бұрын
this can also kickstart EV development in Japan, as the Japanese OEMs will be less reliant on the PRC supply chain.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
Tell Toyota the news.
@albertiwong2 ай бұрын
@@jamesvandamme7786 still a long ways off, results in lab may or may not scale up.
@tylovset2 ай бұрын
Here in Europe, a few weeks ago there was the discovery of the largest deposit of rare earth oxides in Europe, found in the southeast of Norway (estimated 8.8 million tonnes). Crucial for the production of the future's wind turbines, mobile phones and defense equipment. China has an almost monopoly on the production of rare earth metals, so this may become more important for Europe than Norwegian gas exports are today. They aim to start mining by 2030.
@244col2 ай бұрын
Good news oil companies can play both camps. Oil, gas and now lithium from fracking.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
Drillers can build geothermal wells.
@Withnail19692 ай бұрын
It won't be cheap. Anyone claiming it will be is a scammer looking for investors to scam. Do not invest in any such scheme.
@RWBHereАй бұрын
How can it be an unlimited supply, if you've already told us how much there is?
@bluefish79402 ай бұрын
This guy always make feel good story for Americans, like FOX 😂😂😂
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
We could use some good news once in a while.
@stan89262 ай бұрын
His visitors are most likely largely americans. He cannot just say China this China that. Their should be some hope for the rest of the people.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
@@stan8926 There's no hope for us for the next 4 years, given our choices in the next election: Dumb and Dumber.
@eugenec71302 ай бұрын
Can the lithium extracted from sea water be used directly in batteries? If further processes are needed to make this lithium useable, then these processes are the bottleneck of the whole process of lithium mining/extraction and purification. China is already mastering the conversion of lithium ore to lithium pure enough to be used in batteries, the United States will still be trailing China even lithium can be extracted from water of Salton Sea.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
Easier to scoop it off the ground than to refine the minute amount in seawater. Same with uranium and a lot of other minerals. Processing is cheaper to do in countries without an EPA, OSHA, or unions.
@hardi.howdy.9832 ай бұрын
So the glut of Lithium will mean cheaper electric cars? Te question is when, if ever? There is a glut of oil, but is petrol cheap? So, don't get carried away, dear 😁
@andders24772 ай бұрын
Oil is way to cheap, we just use to much of it.
@chrisward56262 ай бұрын
The glut of evs will make them cheaper as we see already . You have been ripped of buying gas cars all your life .
@boblilly42162 ай бұрын
And the lithium in the fracking waters in Pennsylvania! But why would we want to lower energy costs by pulling out naturally gas AND making Lithium.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
That depends how much lithium is in the water, and how much gas comes out with it.
@BigBen6212 ай бұрын
The amount of lithium in the fracking waters in Pennsylvania is trivial in the big picture.
@dougsheldon55602 ай бұрын
They're already moving on to Sodium.
@freezebrain49052 ай бұрын
Elon musk says lithium is like the salt on a salad amount in a battery and there’s more cobalt in your cell phone then a Tesla battery, batteries are mostly made of nickel. And nickel is harder to get then lithium.
@hanswitvliet81882 ай бұрын
How about Tesla!s refinery?
@i6power302 ай бұрын
Funny enough, more than half of the leading battery researchers in the US universities are of Chinese origin.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
Half the students in any college are oriental.
@chrisbryden81022 ай бұрын
Isn’t lithium already dead.
@billjohnson30222 ай бұрын
Forget the Salton Sea. Frackers have discovered there is enough lithium in their waste water to supply all our needs. Getting it from sea water would be cheaper and easier but when you are looking for ways to justify your operations....I guess they know how to use their PR departments.
@danielcarroll33582 ай бұрын
The Salton sea is the northern end of the Gulf of California. It was cut off from the rest of the gulf by the delta of the Colorado river. It is below sea level and was a dry lake bed until the gates controlling water flow into a canal from the Colorado were overcome and washed away by a flood. The Colorado then took a new path - meanwhile creating a few canyons - and dumped into the Salton Sink. This continued for months until the Southern Pacific Railroad, to preserve their right of way, dumped railcar loads of rock to create a dike and restore the Colorado to its former bed. You now had the Salton Sea. At first this was fresh water and for a while there were even resorts on the "sea". Over time the lake has dried, become salty and contaminated with agricultural runoff from the Imperial Valley's farms. There is hot brine below ground in the sink. This has been taken advantage of by several geothermal power plants. After the heat is extracted to boil water to drive turbines, the brine is pumped back into the ground to be reheated. It was known that there was lithium in the brine, but this was taken no notice of until demand for lithium jumped. So now the plants are thinking of extracting the heat AND the lithium before reinjecting it into the ground. The Salton Sea is not proposed as a source of lithium. It is just a neighbor.
@johnrdadrian2 ай бұрын
Largest Lithium Deposit in the world. The Thacker Pass Mine located in the McDermitt Caldera started construction March 2023. For some reason the Biden Administration tried to stop this Lithium Mine from going ahead, but the courts ruled construction could proceed.
@johnrobert21482 ай бұрын
The problem with Lithium is I believe that it's finite here on earth. We shouldn't use Lithium mostly for cars only. We need them for our phones and gadgets. What will happen if Lithium runs out? Oil runs out, but nature will eventually replenish it with our biomatter. I think you can't reuse Lithium once it's depleted or corroded. Hopefully there is an alternative to Lithium. If you can create electricity from water.
@jamesvandamme77862 ай бұрын
There's other common chemicals like sodium that can take over for different applications, like stationary storage. Large batteries are recycled and the chemicals are refined back into feedstock for new batteries. Right now almost all of it is still in use. Lithium is an element and doesn't change into something else. Replenishment of oil takes millions of years. We are burning it at MUCH faster rate. Biofuels might be feasible someday using reactor process heat and carbohydrates from biomass. Don't hold your breath. And no, you can't turn water into electricity. Someday we might fuse deuterium and tritium to make electricity or heat. Nowadays we use the gravity potential in reservoirs to generate electricity, but the water is unchanged.