Lithium, a soft white metal (photo, left), is a key material for electrical car batteries — making it a strategic material.
The world’s currently known commercial-grade deposits are concentrated in South America and Australia.
Mining methods on the two continents couldn’t be more different. In Australia, the lithium is extracted from billion-year-old rocks, by traditional hard-rock mining methods. In South America, it’s in brine pits, from which lithium-bearing water is pumped, and then evaporated to separate the lithium.
Both methods are polluting, and have environmental impacts. Read story here.
Photos below: A Chilean lithium brine operation (top); an Australian lithium mine (bottom)
