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Also it is likely that, because of environmental regulations, it is not possible to mine the lithium economically. I haven't kept up, but the lack of lithium pr
by roenxi 3y ago
Also it is likely that, because of environmental regulations, it is not possible to mine the lithium economically. I haven't kept up, but the lack of lithium production in the US suggests that there are regulatory factors at play.
Although apparently Australia is a big lithium producer so it must be possible to do in an environmentally conscious way. Or Australia's lithium mines have managed to fly under the radar of the environmentalists. It looks like Australia's lithium deposits are unusual being hard rock deposits, and we have it processed in China because I assume that part of the process is illegal in Australia.
- sherry-sherry 3y ago> it must be possible to do in an environmentally conscious way. Or Australia's lithium mines have managed to fly under the radar of the environmentalists Sadly, both don't seem to be true. Australia's lithium mining has a higher carbon footprint than others (3.4): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344922004670 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092134492... We has some of the highest CO2 emissions per capita, so it's not much of a surprise we are doing this inefficiently too.
- EdwardDiego 3y ago> Also it is likely that, because of environmental regulations, it is not possible to mine the lithium economically. I haven't kept up, but the lack of lithium production in the US suggests that there are regulatory factors at play. That's a large assumption to make without any investigation.
- roenxi 3y agoIt would be. But I've made a lot of investigations.
- dtgriscom 3y ago{citation needed}
- roenxi 3y agoI've done modelling work for mine planning projects when people were deciding where to put a mine. Quite a lot of it. Lithium has been a trendy commodity for years. If the US doesn't have a lot of active lithium mines - which it does not - it is going to be because of legislative impediments. Probably environmental ones. There aren't a lot of other reasons. It is common for environmental restrictions as the root cause of mines not being started, particularly in lithium from what I gathered. You're not going to get a citation, this is literally just stuff I happened to know quite well a few years ago.
- Sabinus 3y agoIt's a pretty well understood fact that lithium processing has withered in the West because currently it's an extremely polluting process.