Legendary lithium riches from Bolivia’s salt flats may still just be a mirage

The system will be deployed at Eureka’s Standing Stone advanced wastewater treatment facility in Pennsylvania.

Extracting Atacama’s lithium means pumping large amounts of water and churning up salty mud known as brine—and that’s having an irreversible impact on the local environment.

The LME said in a statement to Reuters that it respects the right of companies to operate in whatever ways best suit their needs.

Tianqi last December bought a 23.8 percent share in SQM from Canadian fertilizer company Nutrien for $4.1B, the largest deal in history for a lithium asset.

The exchange will work Fastmarkets to provide the reference price lithium, a key component in the batteries that power electric vehicles and high-tech devices.

According to Sweden's Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Promotion, the country has become lithium-thirsty due to an increase in demand for electric cars.

The find potentially curbs the nation's reliance on imports of the material used in electric vehicle batteries.

The race by Tesla, Samsung and other technology giants to secure supplies of lithium is creating a unique chance for two global mining superpowers to reap more value from their natural resources.

Samples returned values of up to 373 mg/L lithium, and up to 8,001 mg/L potassium.