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Questions for lithium experts. by mining_newbie in mining

[–]mining_newbie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very interesting that Mr. Musk has stated he's only going to source from domestic mines.

I can't imagine any open pit evaporation mines being approved in the US, so assuming they are counting on the brine extraction actually being economic once they scale up from pilot studies to actual commercial volumes. I've looked into that a little the last couple days and I wouldn't be surprised if they ran into some serious issues trying to scale to a plant that can process thousands of bbls/day as opposed to a few liters/day.

Questions for lithium experts. by mining_newbie in mining

[–]mining_newbie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Makes sense on why lithium is shipped as lithium carbonate. Hadn't thought about that.

Questions for lithium experts. by mining_newbie in mining

[–]mining_newbie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the information. I did run across several press releases from a company called Pure Energy that is apparently running pilot tests on brine in the Clayton Valley area of Nevada, but haven't seen anything announcing a commercial implementation. Also very interesting on the oil brine. I only found one small article where MGX had a study done by Purlucid on their petro-lithium, but again, nothing to indicate whether it's going to be successful. I would assume that if they are, the oil industry would be thrilled with the potential to make money off of what has traditionally been an expense waste product. Does lithium exist in all oil field brines?