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US scientists say they have discovered a new source of lithium, a key element in the manufacturing of battery-powered electric cars and other renewable energy technologies: supervolcanoes.
In a study published today in Nature Communications, the team at Stanford University say lake sediments within unusually large volcanoes can host lithium-rich clay deposits, which would be an essential step toward diversifying the supply of the metal.
Most of the lithium supply that currently powers modern electronics is found at salt flats in Chile and rock formations in Australia; the discovery could open the industry to several other countries.
Currently, most of the lithium supply that powers modern electronics is found at salt flats in Chile and rock formations in Australia, but the experts believe their discovery could open the door to several other countries to jump into the lithium-producing wagon, particularly the US.
“The demand for lithium has outpaced the scientific understanding of the resource, so it’s essential for the fundamental science behind these resources to catch up,” the main author of the study, Thomas Benson, said in a statement.
“We’re going to have to use electric vehicles and large storage batteries to decrease our carbon footprint,” Gail Mahood, co-author of the study and professor of geological sciences at Stanford University added. “It’s important to identify lithium resources in the US so that our supply does not rely on single companies or countries in a way that makes us subject to economic or political manipulation,” he noted.
Supervolcanoes are much larger than ordinary volcanoes and erupt at least 1,000 cubic kilometers of material in one eruption. They look like huge holes in the ground, known as calderas, rather than the cone-like shape typically associated with regular volcanoes.
Over tens of thousands of years, rainfall and hot springs leach out lithium from the volcanic deposits, and the lithium accumulates, along with sediments, in the caldera lake where it becomes concentrated in clay, the researchers say.
Not every supervolcano leaves behind such bountiful lithium and other rare metals essential to building the 21st century energy infrastructure. But the calderas along the relatively thick crust found in western US are particularly good candidates for such deposits, and Benson says most of them remain unexplored.
The finding comes as more companies, including carmakers such as Volvo, try competing with electric vehicles leader Tesla, by producing environment-friendly models.
11 Comments
wags1
Do you think the National Park status of most of these locations might pose a little problem when it come to mining lithium in the bottom of these lakes?
Restless Boomers
Articles that mention or discuss the need to reduce the ‘carbon footprint’ are written by pseudo science for consumption by the Sheeple.
Kenneth Viney
The present progressive liberal generation has denied the existence of God and now feel a profound sense of guilt so now worship the False God of Man Made Global Warming. I see some researchers promoting Government Control of the weather to obtain grants and large fees. Give your collective heads a serious shake.
MlunguHoran Horan
Those sheeple who think it’s possible to reduce “carbon footprint” should see how long they can hold their breathe.
robo
Enviro-nuts use the term ‘carbon footprint’ because carbon is normally experienced as black messy dust. Using that phony term helps raise money from people who have been brain-washed into believing in global warming.
But saying that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the same as carbon (C) is like saying water (H2O) is the same as oxygen (O). It’s pretty stupid, but that’s what brain-washed global warmers believe.
magmahombre999
These Stanford researcher have discovered nothing new. They should be sent to sit in a corner with a dunce cap on for 20 days. The presence of lithium-rich clays (the mineral is called hectorite) in the lake moat sediments of the McDermitt caldera has been known for at least 40 years and the US Bureau of Mines (now just as extinct as the McDermitt caldera) did the initial test work on the recovery of lithium from the hectorite clays. Here is one of the many references for those Stanford researchers that never bothered doing a google search or as search using GeoRef.
About 5,750 results (0.95 seconds) Google Search Results
Lithium in the McDermitt caldera, Nevada and Oregon, https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70012573 by RK Glanzman – 1978 – Cited by 19 – Related articles.
Western Lithium (now Lithium Americas) drilled the deposits in the McDermitt caldera between 2010 and 2016 when they got smart, acquired a lithium brine deposit in Argentina, and then JV’d development of the brine deposit with SQM. The resource in the McDermitt deposit is about 380Mt at 0.3% Li. The resource statement can be viewed here at http://lithiumamericas.com/companies/lithium-nevada/. That possiblity that other calderas might host similar deposits is well-known in the exploration industry and has been for 40 years. But, who wants to spend their exploration dollars looking for an uncompetitive deposit. All the junior exploration companies in Nevada and elsewhere crowing about 100 ppm lithium anomalies are just mining investor pockets.
Recovery of lithium from hectorite clays deposits is energy intensive (requires calcining the clays at high temperatures) and is not competitive with recovery from salar brines. Duh!!!
JaHak Koo
A helpful professional and knowledgeable geoscientist’s comment!!!
Tom Turner
Would this lake sediment model apply at all to the REE in clay beds in China?
Phil Short
When resources are in short supply they don’t have to be competitive, but nevertheless developments in recovery methods have reduced the processing costs. Processing TIME is quite a bit quicker too, measured in days rather than years.
SpeakingTruthNotPC
What amazes me is that we are brainwashed into believing electric cars are greener. Unless the electricity used to power them comes from solar or hydro power or other clean renewable source then they are no greener than current fossil fuel vehicles. All they have done is move the carbon footprint
Earth before greed
Apparently a number people were absent the day the professors discused the properties of carbon dioxide. And…we get a rather myopic view of the atmosphere sitting at the bottom of the column. Earth’s atmosphere is indeed finite and no amount is snide political ranting will change that. Next you fly a commercial airliner, you need to remember that more than one half of our planet’s atmosphere is beneath your feet. The body of reputable scientists is right with an overwhelming degree statistical confidence. If the Nevada casinos bet against such odds, they would be bankrupt before the day shift was done. And the cost of a wrong decision by the climate naysayers is so large that no rational human would chance it