More, On The Prospect Of Changing Lithium Extraction Economics... This Time From Princeton's Chemistry Research Labs: A Far More Eco-Friendly Extractor.

The current, most widely deployed version of extracting / mining lithium requires miles of so-called brine extraction ponds -- a series of huge eco-destructive salt-water bodies to concentrate lithium from groundwater aquifers. This process is slow, often taking more than a year. Thus, these methods are only commercially viable in a handful of locations -- ones that have sufficiently high lithium ore bodies, an abundance of available land, and desert-like conditions -- to maximize the evaporation / throughput of harvesting it. And it leaves an ugly salt water lake scar(s), over several dozens of square miles of previously wild high desert land (for example) in remote Bolivia. There is at present no viable plan -- to return that land to an arable state -- from its manufactured salt flat appearance.

Enter the smart folks in the Princeton University chem-labs:

. . .The core of the technique, described in a paper recently published in Nature Water, is a set of porous fibers twisted into strings, which the researchers engineered to have a water-loving core and a water-repelling surface. When the ends are dipped in a salt-water solution, the water travels up the strings through capillary action – the same process trees use to draw water from roots to leaves.

The water quickly evaporates from each string’s surface, leaving behind salt ions such as sodium and lithium. As water continues to evaporate, the salts become increasingly concentrated and eventually form sodium chloride and lithium chloride crystals on the strings, allowing for easy harvesting. . . .

[T]he technique causes the lithium and sodium to crystallize at distinct locations along the string due to their different physical properties. Sodium, with low solubility, crystallizes on the lower part of the string, while the highly soluble lithium salts crystallize near the top. The natural separation allowed the team to collect lithium and sodium individually, a feat that typically requires the use of additional chemicals. . . .

This, coupled to the McDermitt find in remote Oregon. . . may well change the fundamental problems, over about a decade, with lithium extraction and therefor, pricing. Look out Elon, the new world is dawning, out there. No more controlling everything, from a Bolivian salt flat. Cheers -- this may be the last post until next Tuesday, as I fly off to the wild high Rockies, and nearly no cell or wi-fi coverage. Smile.

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