Deep under the Salton Sea lies the world’s largest lithium mine strata that could turn California into a “lithium valley” .
Maria Nava-Frelich, mayor of Calipatria, California, watches geothermal mud boil at the edge of the Salton Sea. Connecting to the Colorado River, the state’s largest inland sea is shrinking and increasingly polluted, killing fish populations and threatening migratory birds. But the massive amounts of lithium located more than a mile deep beneath the geothermal mud in the deserts north of Mexico and east of San Diego are enough to meet all of America’s needs and even export if it can be mined. commercial exploitation, according to SCMP .
The subsoil of the Salton Sea has large reserves of lithium. (Photo: Guardian).
With an estimated 15 million tons of lithium, the Imperial Valley is the world’s largest saltwater lake lithium deposit . Engineers believe that the local mining process will have less impact on the environment and use less water and electricity than open-pit or evaporative mining. Lithium mining plants will be powered by geothermal energy, a renewable source of energy extracted when brine is brought up from the ground and converted into steam, turning turbines.
Worldwide demand for lithium, used in batteries that power everything from electric cars to fighter jets, is expected to increase fivefold by 2030. Lithium carbonate prices hit a record ,000 a ton in November 2022, from ,000/ton a decade ago.
China’s dominance of this strategic mineral spurred the US to race to find a foothold in the industry. According to the International Energy Agency, Beijing now controls three-fifths of the world’s lithium supply and three-quarters of lithium-ion battery production. Other lithium ores discovered in the US include Arkansas, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. But the only mine in operation today in Nevada accounts for less than 1% of global production.
Finding lithium ore deposits in the US is easy. The bigger challenge is building the industry from the ground up, including harnessing the technology, investing in state and federal projects, reducing taxes, and funding research. The global battery supply chain needs an estimated 4 billion by 2030 to meet projected demand. The US also faces more environmental and community-reaction constraints compared to China, especially in terms of lithium processing.
Since the 1980s, hot brine has been pumped from deep underground to turn turbines and produce electricity, but the lithium content in it is ignored. The focus now is on mining this increasingly valuable “white gold” before pumping the cooled brine into the ground. Three geothermal companies Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Controlled Thermal Resources and EnergySource Minerals are conducting pilot projects. EnergySource will break ground on a large-scale lithium mining plant this year. The goal for the three companies is to produce 100,000 tons of lithium annually by 2027, enough to power 50,000 electric vehicles.