A new study has revealed a lake in California conceals a staggering amount of an extremely valuable element – Lithium.
The state’s largest lake, the Salton Sea, was already known to be on a lithium reserve, but they were unaware of how much of the chemical element was underneath.
In a bid to find out, the Department of Energy (DoE) funded a study that set about researching to analyse just how much lay beneath the vast body of water.
Californian Governor Gavin Newsom previously described the Salton Sea as the “Saudi Arabia of lithium mining”.
Knowing what was discovered, it’s not difficult to see why he called it that.
Lithium is a lightweight, silvery-white metal often called “white gold” thanks to its role in batteries for electric vehicles and other devices like phones and laptops. Although it has been known for almost two centuries, lithium has only recently started making headlines and could become as precious as gold in this century.
The metal is abundant in the earth’s crust but is very finely distributed. Researchers estimate the amount in the world’s oceans at around 200 billion tons. Deposits in rocks and salt lakes on land are believed to add up to 98 million metric tons, 26 million of which would be economically mineable in the coming decades, DW reported.
Global lithium production has increased by 334% in the past three years, and demand is expected to double by the end of this year.
It was previously estimated that around four million tons lay underneath the lake. However, it was revealed that there could be an eye-watering 18 million tons.
This would be enough to power more than 382 million EV batteries.
In light of the discovery makes the Californian reservoir the largest in the world.
As of 2023, one metric ton of lithium was worth around $29,000 (£23,000), so the Salton Sea could contain $540 billion (£428.6 billion) worth of white gold.
“This is one of the largest lithium brine deposits in the world,” said Michael McKibben, one of the study’s authors and geochemistry professor at the University of California, Riverside, according to Unilad. “This could make the United States completely self-sufficient in lithium and stop importing it through China.”
Sammy Roth, the climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times, said on KJZZ radio: “It’s been known for a long time that there’s a whole bunch of lithium in this super-heated underground pool… There have been companies for decades, actually, that have been trying to get lithium out of there, and especially in the last decade as electric vehicles and energy storage on the power grid become such a big need.”
“But this new report out of the federal government it’s really a sort of eye popping number. They found that there’s potentially enough lithium down there to supply batteries for 382 million electric vehicles, which is more, more vehicles than there are on the road in the United States today.
“So, if we could get all that lithium, that’d be huge.”
Further south, Latin America has more than 65% of the world’s lithium reserves, with the “Lithium Triangle” in Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia being particularly rich.
