• According to a new study, the Salton Sea region’s total resources could produce more than 3,400 kilo tonnes of lithium, enough to support over 375 million batteries for electric vehicles (EV), more than the total number of vehicles currently on US roads.

• The study was conducted by the US. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

• The analysis confirms the region in California has significant potential as a domestic source of this critical mineral used in batteries for stationary storage and EVs, both of which are crucial to the country’s goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

• Geothermal brines, which are a byproduct of geothermal electricity generation, often have high concentrations of minerals like lithium and zinc. While exact concentrations of these minerals depend on the location and surrounding geology, the use of direct lithium extraction (DLE) from geothermal brines offers a promising opportunity to couple clean, renewable electricity with a source of domestic lithium.

• The US currently has limited capabilities to extract, refine, and produce domestically sourced lithium, meaning nearly all lithium for the country needs to be imported. 

Lithium is a critical mineral

• Often called ‘white gold’, lithium is a critical mineral, with particular importance for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage, and global demand is expected to grow more than 40 times by 2040. 

• Lithium is a soft, silvery-white metal that can be found in many places throughout the world, typically in mineral compounds in hard rock, sediments, and certain water sources. 

• It occurs naturally and abundantly in the earth and is generally found in three sources — pegmatites or hard rock, sedimentary deposits often referred to as clay, and waters with high concentrations of dissolved salts referred to as brines. 

• Salar brines are close to the surface, in contrast, geothermal brines are high-temperature, high-pressure formations deep underground.

• Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have applications in energy storage system - from hearing aid to container sized batteries to power a cluster of villages, electric vehicles, portable electronic sector, grid storage, telecom and telecommunication towers, medical devices, household and office power backup (UPS), powering robots in the processing industry. 

• Lithium-ion batteries can power any electrical application without the need of physical wires.

• Lithium is a core component of lithium-ion batteries that can store and discharge high amounts of energy. Many consumer products use lithium-ion batteries, as do most EVs and energy storage technologies. Both EVs and energy storage are important to achieving climate change targets.

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