Mojave Desert Lithium: Rio Tinto produces battery grade lithium in the US

[BMc]

Rio’s discovery of lithium at Boron was a fluke. The miner was actually testing Boron’s tailings to see whether the presence of gold was significant and found instead traces of lithium at a concentration higher than domestic projects under development.

“We were looking for gold… but we found something better than gold: battery-grade lithium – and the potential to produce a lot of it,” Alex Macdonald, senior engineer at the plant

[Electrician]

Arizona has some sweet lithium deposits just west of Morristown

[Guest]

This sounds familiar... from two yrs ago...https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-25/rio-tinto-producing-lithium-in-california-from-old-mining-waste

[chrisski]

On 4/22/2021 at 7:48 AM, Electrician said:

Arizona has some sweet lithium deposits just west of Morristown

I know of some lithium claims West of Morristown, but over the years a lot of those types of claims have amounted to nothing. I’ve been told not to expect much form those. There were Uranium claims in the vicinity of the San Domingo wash, but those eventually dropped.  There was a geologist who had drilled some core samples West of Morristown and that lead to a lot of claims being placed, but those got dropped also.  

None of that gets dropped because there is too many recoverable minerals there to be worked.  I think there were some LLCs that got created that spend a lot of investors money, with little to show, but some of these claims were placed off trace amounts in hopes of either more venture capitol or a better concentration than tested.

[BMc]

5 hours ago, Stillweaver hillbelli said:

This sounds familiar... from two yrs ago...https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-25/rio-tinto-producing-lithium-in-california-from-old-mining-waste

Not taking anything away from Clay. The subject has been covered by several forum members. The recent news on the subject emphasized the rather serendipitous finding of the deposit which I considered worthy of mention. 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, BMc said:

Not taking anything away from Clay. The subject has been covered by several forum members. The recent news on the subject emphasized the rather serendipitous finding of the deposit which I considered worthy of mention. 

Mining is always worthy of mention as it is one of the three (beginning) creators of wealth-ranching and farming being the other two..

The two year difference in the articles is the initial  finding of Li value ,vs. the recent refining results, I believe.

[Guest]

On 4/24/2021 at 3:52 AM, Stillweaver hillbelli said:

Mining is always worthy of mention as it is one of the three (beginning) creators of wealth-ranching and farming being the other two..

 

I left fishing off the list, but then you have to mine oil and other raw materials to create / power  the ships and equipment. 

[Bedrock Bob]

You also forgot logging, construction and manufacturing. Along with several others.

News flash. It takes equipment, fuel and materials to mine and farm just like it does to fish.

It is not a serial process that begins with oil or mined materials. It is an intersectional web where primary extraction is no more important than the manpower, science and technology that is needed to produce the final product. The same science, technology and manpower is also needed to support the workings of the mine.

The process itself is the "creator of wealth". Not the minerals nor the miners. They are no more than another link in a circular chain.

The idea that the extraction industries are somehow the wellspring from which the economy flows is linear thinking. It is also incorrect.

Yes, the extraction industry provides the raw materials we need. Miners dig it up. Smelters and refiners make raw material from rock. Millers and manufacturers make usable materials from raw materials. Truckers ship it. Distributors distribute it. Craftsmen create with it. The financiers finance it. Physicists reckoned it could happen. Scientists figured out how to make it happen. Engineers figured out how to make it work. Investors made it possible. Entrepreneurs risked everything to sell it. Workers put in hard hours to make it and some were injured. Some may have been killed.

They are all primary wealth producers. They are all producing wealth that did not exist before. Each produces wealth collectively towards a common goal. The miner just digs up the rock.

[Dakota Slim]

Wasn't this thread about "Mojave Desert Lithium: Rio Tinto produces battery grade lithium in the US"?
I thought someone had some blockbuster news to add to it.
It is amazing how so many threads on this forum morph into (Fill in the blank)__________________________. 

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Dakota Slim

[Bedrock Bob]

3 hours ago, Dakota Slim said:

Wasn't this thread about "Mojave Desert Lithium: Rio Tinto produces battery grade lithium in the US"?
I thought someone had some blockbuster news to add to it.
It is amazing how so many threads on this forum morph into (Fill in the blank)__________________________. 

 

I think it is fairly common for conversations here to wander a bit Slim.

Case in point...Do you have anything to add that is on topic? If you do you can post It and carry the conversation in the direction you would like it to go.

I'm sorry you didn't get the blockbuster news you expected. And I hope the direction this thread took has not caused you any undue stress. That is just the way things go sometimes. 

If it is any consolation they are also considering recovering lithium from the potash mines in New Mexico. They are ready to start extracting the lithium from the leach solutions as soon as there is a market for it.  They can produce lithium as a by product of their current in-situ potash operations with very little development cost.

Hopefully a little lithium will make up for the shattered expectations as the conversation evolves from the original post. 

 

 

[Guest]

 It could all be ancient technology, (Li batteries) in a few years if these new fangled Aluminum  batteries  make it to market.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Dakota Slim said:

 

It is amazing how so many threads on this forum morph into (_________the value and importance of mining________________. 

 

I filled in the blank to summarize. 

His Bobness presented a great dissertation  to highlight  the interconnectedness of it all.

Copper and Silver, of course, play heavily  on this Lithium  green ride.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Bedrock Bob said:

 

Hopefully a little lithium will make up for the shattered expectations as the conversation evolves from the original post. 

 

 

[Bedrock Bob]

Back at the end of the second World war soda pop often contained lithium.  It was a very common anti depressant that was included in many soft drinks. 7-UP had a maximum dosage.

(Several products including soft drinks and chewing tobacco contained cocaine.)

Lithium is recommendled for azz chap, butthurt and nasal whine. It will also fix Traumatic Post Disorder Stress (TPDS) which is the inability to tolerate conversations on the internet that you are not involved in.

[Dakota Slim]

6 hours ago, Bedrock Bob said:

Back at the end of the second World war soda pop often contained lithium.  It was a very common anti depressant that was included in many soft drinks. 7-UP had a maximum dosage.

(Several products including soft drinks and chewing tobacco contained cocaine.)

Lithium is recommendled for azz chap, butthurt and nasal whine. It will also fix Traumatic Post Disorder Stress (TPDS) which is the inability to tolerate conversations on the internet that you are not involved in.

What about sausage? Someone said it was also "recommendled for azz chap, butthurt and nasal whine."

[Au Seeker]

Either get back on topic and leave direct or indirect personal comments out of this topic or it will be locked!

[Bedrock Bob]

18 hours ago, Stillweaver hillbelli said:

 It could all be ancient technology, (Li batteries) in a few years if these new fangled Aluminum  batteries  make it to market.

No doubt it will be obsolete in a decade. 

The auto industry is investing bazillions of frogskins into electric cars. That will drive a technology boom in both motors and batteries. In ten years they will have made advances that we couldn't imagine today.

There is a guy in Albuquerque with an electric dragster. It's an old bread delivery truck. He actually runs in the low 10's. The car has so much instant horsepower they have a computer to control wheel spin. They are just getting It ironed out and It will already blow away just about any street car. It uses an array of 12v. Lead acid batteries. Old school. Imagine how much weight and space could be shed with Li batteries. You could turn a corvette into a bullet.

Electric ain't no joke. We already have free electric vehicle charging stations in Las Cruces New Mexico. Just drive up and plug it in. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Bedrock Bob said:

 

Electric ain't no joke. We already have free electric vehicle charging stations in Las Cruces New Mexico. Just drive up and plug it in. 

If they're fast chargers,it's no bargain. Just a few chargings can age(decrease the car's range) up to 10% or more. Make it a habit at your wallet's peril.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Guest

[Bedrock Bob]

1 minute ago, Stillweaver hillbelli said:

If they're fast chargers,it's no bargain. Just a few chargings can age(decrease the car's range) up to 10% or more. Make it a habit at your wallet's peril.

I don't drive an electric Toyota Land Cruiser. 

The point was not that the free charging stations were the best value. The point was that electric cars are not the future but the present reality. If you can get a free charge for your electric car in Las Cruces then the future is now.

[Guest]

45 minutes ago, Bedrock Bob said:

I don't drive an electric Toyota Land Cruiser. 

The point was not that the free charging stations were the best value. The point was that electric cars are not the future but the present reality. If you can get a free charge for your electric car in Las Cruces then the future is now.

No doubt. I wasn’t  arguing: just pointing out that a slow charge is best for long battery life. May be that is why they are free(they are slow chargers). May be a fast  charge is optional  and dings your credit card.

[Bedrock Bob]

If you aren't going to argue with me then what is the point of the discussion? Geez man.

Im not sure what kind of chargers they are. Lots of people use them. I'm trying to figure out how I can hook up my fishing batteries to the darn things and charge them up after a weekend on the trout boat. Just pull up in my diesel pickup and siphon off some recreational electrons paid for by tax dollars.

There is another sweet use of the Li batteries. They have kayak trolling motors that run on the 24v dewalt tool batteries. They say a couple batteries will last all day.

I keep threatening to hook up my fish finder on a 12v Dewalt tool battery for my kayak. It has a battery box but a lead acid battery is just too much hassle for a sonar on a kayak. A Lithium battery would mount right under the console and practically fit in your cargo pockets.

 

Want to argue about lithium in the vaccines? Colloidal lithium to treat coronavirus? Building the border wall out of pure lithium crystals?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Bedrock Bob said:

 Colloidal lithium to treat coronavirus? Building the border wall out of pure lithium crystals?

Save the Li for exotic alloys , batteries and mental space cadets...

Actually, you would want to use Zn. Au and Ag, with some Cu daily, too.

 

The vit D is a given.

And Dilithium crystals belong in the reactor core. Transparent Al is for the wall.

[Bedrock Bob]

You are an elementist. You sit there stoned on an array of metals, smoking seaweed, snorting vitamin pills talking smack about lithium. 

Lithium is a groovy metal. It is the next step in our technological evolution. It is virtually everywhere, and mineable deposits could be almost anywhere. 

So add some lithium to your intake and see what miracles might happen. All the cool kids are doing it.

 

.....

Fun fact.

Those lithium batteries produce copious amounts of hydrogen when you discharge them fast. I have had drills explode a dozen times driving big deck screws. The batteries are fine afterward. But the air around it will go off like a .357 magnum. If you are in a position where the hydrogen pools just right and the oxygen is just right it will blow it right out of your hand.

Those old Makita 9 volt drills with the first Li batteries were super bad about it. My Dewalt 18v. will go bang once in a while too.

Seems like you could have an electric/hydrogen powered engine. Something that would use the hydrogen created during discharge. If you were running a lot of big Li batteries you would be producing quite a bit of very powerful gas. You could run that down the intake of your Prius and get that rascal to do a wheel stand.