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You seem to be expecting to get a waterfall out of a pond. That we will just push the ocean through a fantasy machine that gives you the minerals you want is Ly
by sk2020 5y ago
You seem to be expecting to get a waterfall out of a pond. That we will just push the ocean through a fantasy machine that gives you the minerals you want is Lysenkoism.
- akiselev 5y agoIf by fantasy machine you mean existing mining and evaporative extraction technology - like those used to produce boron in California and Turkey - then yes.
- sk2020 5y agoThat’s fascinating! Can you please share the name of one of those operations or the companies operating them? I can only find academic papers referencing pilot projects.
- akiselev 5y agoExamples are Searles Valley Minerals which extracts boron from the brine under Searles Lake, CA [1] and Rio Tinto's lithium extraction plant which uses waste rock from the Borox mines in Boron, CA [2]. It takes time to spin up production to 10 million tons per year - which is the scale of boron or silicon production according to the wiki - but now that lithium is worth something, it's just a matter of time and incentives. [1] http://www.svminerals.com http://www.svminerals.com [2] https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/releases/2021/Rio-Tinto-achieves-battery-grade-lithium-production-at-Boron-plant https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/releases/2021/Rio-Tinto-ach...