Mega discovery of white gold in the USA: Land of unlimited lithium possibilities

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Until just a few years ago, interest in lithium as a raw material was limited. Today alkaline metal is irreplaceable in modern electric cars. Depending on the size of the battery, each electric vehicle contains between 10 and 20 kilograms of “white gold”. More than 130,000 tonnes of lithium are currently processed annually. Experts expect demand to triple in the next five years and continue to grow rapidly thereafter.

Today’s mining methods are controversial, as is the necessity of lithium. Salt extraction, especially in the salt deserts of South America, has been criticized repeatedly (also interesting: How harmful is lithium really?). In addition, dependence on China increasingly worries Western experts and business representatives; China now has a virtual monopoly on both ore extraction and further processing in refineries.

Millions and millions of tons of lithium

But this monopoly position may end soon. In the US, geologists have discovered huge lithium deposits in the “McDermitt Caldera”, a huge crater on the earth’s surface, on the border between the states of Nevada and Oregon, said to have been formed during the eruption of a nearby supervolcano. 16 million years ago. Careful estimates assume amounts of lithium between 20 and 40 million tonnes. According to the report in the journal Science Advances, up to 120 million tons of the sought-after raw material may lie underground in the desolate northwestern United States.

For comparison: The largest deposits so far are in Bolivia (21 million tons), Argentina (19 million) and Chile (9.8 million), according to the US science agency USGS. Surprising: In 2022, the most lithium was mined not in Bolivia or Argentina, but in Australia: 61,000 tonnes, almost half the amount mined worldwide. The largest producers are Chile (39,000 tons), China (19,000 tons) and Argentina (6,200 tons). The amount to be obtained from McDermitt Caldera will be enough to produce billions of electric cars (at today’s conditions), so lithium shortage will be eliminated in the foreseeable future.

Lithium for 50 years

In addition, the lithium does not need to be pumped to the surface as lithium-containing brine, as in South America, but is evaporated in large basins and the remaining salt solution is then converted to white carbonate – hence the name “white gold”. . However, it is said to be highly concentrated in clay and shallow deposits in Nevada and Oregon; Clay layers need to be scraped with excavators, dissolved in water and treated with sulfuric acid. The nearly pure lithium solution is finally extracted from the resulting brine.

In March, the Lithium Americas mining company began preparations for construction of a massive open-pit mine in McDermitt Caldera despite protests from environmentalists and local residents. US automobile company General Motors has invested the equivalent of approximately 550 million francs in the project, thus providing exclusive access to lithium mined in Northern Nevada for years to come. In total, the mine is expected to produce lithium carbonate as a raw material for batteries for about 50 years.

Source: Blick