Editing Lithium (section)

=== Extraction ===
[[File:Preliminary Design And Analysis of a process for the extraction of lithium from seawater.pdf|thumb|upright|Analyses of the extraction of lithium from seawater, published in 1975]]
Lithium and its compounds were historically isolated and extracted from hard rock.  However, by the 1990s [[mineral springs]], [[brine]] pools, and brine deposits had become the dominant source.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} Most of these were in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia and the lithium is extracted from the brine by evaporative processes.<ref name="uslit" /> Large lithium-clay deposits under development in the McDermitt caldera (Nevada, United States) require concentrated sulfuric acid to leach lithium from the clay ore.<ref>{{cite tech report |title=Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project Final Environmental Impact Statement |number=DOI-BLM-NV-W010-2020-0012-EIS |date=December 4, 2020 |publisher=[[Bureau of Land Management]] and the [[U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]] |url=https://eplanning.blm.gov/public_projects/1503166/200352542/20030633/250036832/Thacker%20Pass_FEIS_Chapters1-6_508.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2021}}</ref>

By early 2021, much of the lithium mined globally came from either "[[spodumene]], the mineral contained in hard rocks found in places such as Australia and North Carolina"<ref name="wsj20210309">{{cite news |last1=Patterson |first1=Scott |last2=Ramkumar |first2=Amrith |date=9 March 2021 |title=America's Battery-Powered Car Hopes Ride on Lithium. One Producer Paves the Way |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-battery-powered-car-hopes-ride-on-lithium-one-producer-paves-the-way-11615311932 |url-status=live |access-date=13 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312162240/https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-battery-powered-car-hopes-ride-on-lithium-one-producer-paves-the-way-11615311932 |archive-date=12 March 2021}}</ref> or from salty brine pumped directly out of the ground, as it is in locations in Chile.<ref name="wsj20210309" /><ref name=cabello2022>{{cite journal |last1=Cabello |first1=J |year=2022 |title=Reserves, resources and lithium exploration in the salt flats of northern Chile |url=http://www.andeangeology.cl/index.php/revista1/article/view/V49n2-3444/html |journal=[[Andean Geology]] |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=297–306 |doi=10.5027/andgeoV49n2-3444] |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |access-date=3 July 2022 |archive-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212053906/http://www.andeangeology.cl/index.php/revista1/article/view/V49n2-3444/html |url-status=live}}</ref> In Chile's [[Salar de Atacama]], the lithium concentration in the brine is raised by solar evaporation in a system of ponds.<ref name=cabello2022 /> The enrichment by evaporation process may require up to one-and-a-half years, when the brine reaches a lithium content of 6%.<ref name=cabello2022 /> The final processing in this example is done in [[Salar del Carmen]] and [[La Negra (industrial complex)|La Negra]] near the coastal city of [[Antofagasta]] where pure [[lithium carbonate]], [[lithium hydroxide]], and [[lithium chloride]] are produced from the brine.<ref name=cabello2022 />

Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technologies are being developed as alternatives to the evaporitic technology long used to extract lithium salts from [[brine]]s. The traditional evaporitic technology is a long duration process requiring large amounts of land and intensive water use, and can only be applied to the large continental brines. In contrast, DLE technologies are proposed to tackle the environmental and techno–economic shortcomings by avoiding brine evaporation.<ref name=nature20230223>{{Cite journal |last1=Vera |first1=María L. |last2=Torres |first2=Walter R. |last3=Galli |first3=Claudia I. |last4=Chagnes |first4=Alexandre |last5=Flexer |first5=Victoria |date=March 2023 |title=Environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-022-00387-5 |journal=Nature Reviews Earth & Environment |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=149–165 |doi=10.1038/s43017-022-00387-5 |bibcode=2023NRvEE...4..149V |issn=2662-138X}}</ref><ref name=NREE2022>{{Cite journal |last1=Voskoboynik |first1=D.M. |last2=Andreucci |first2=D. |date=2022 |title=Greening extractivism: environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines |journal=Nature Reviews Earth & Environment |volume=4 |pages=149–165}}</ref>  Some recent lithium mining projects are attempting to bring DLE into commercial production by these non-evaporative DLE approaches.<ref name=AR20250311 />

One method direct lithium extraction, as well as other valuable [[mineral]]s, is to process geothermal brine water through an electrolytic cell, located within a membrane.<ref name="Sun-2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Sun |first1=Sen |last2=Yu |first2=Xiaoping |last3=Li |first3=Mingli |last4=Duo |first4=Ji |last5=Guo |first5=Yafei |last6=Deng |first6=Tianlong |date=2020-02-20 |title=Green recovery of lithium from geothermal water based on a novel lithium iron phosphate electrochemical technique |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095965261934048X |journal=Journal of Cleaner Production |language=en |volume=247 |page=119178 |doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119178 |bibcode=2020JCPro.24719178S |s2cid=211445414 |issn=0959-6526}}</ref>{{update after|2024}}<!-- is any of this being operationalized? what are the economics of electrolysis for commercial use? -->

The use of [[electrodialysis]] and electrochemical intercalation was proposed in 2020 to extract lithium compounds from seawater (which contains lithium at 0.2 [[parts per million]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Chong Liu |author2=Yanbin Li |author3=Dingchang Lin |author4=Po-Chun Hsu |author5=Bofei Liu |author6=Gangbin Yan |author7=Tong Wu Yi Cui |author8=Steven Chu |title=Lithium Extraction from Seawater through Pulsed Electrochemical Intercalation |journal=Joule |date=2020 |volume=4 |issue=7 |pages=1459–1469 |doi=10.1016/j.joule.2020.05.017 |bibcode=2020Joule...4.1459L |s2cid=225527170}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |author=Tsuyoshi Hoshino |title=Innovative lithium recovery technique from seawater by using world-first dialysis with a lithium ionic superconductor |journal=Desalination |volume=359 |date=2015 |pages=59–63 |doi=10.1016/j.desal.2014.12.018 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2015Desal.359...59H}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/seawater-could-provide-nearly-unlimited-amounts-critical-battery-material |title=Seawater could provide nearly unlimited amounts of critical battery material |author=Robert F. Service |date=July 13, 2020 |magazine=Science |access-date=26 December 2020 |archive-date=13 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113062048/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/seawater-could-provide-nearly-unlimited-amounts-critical-battery-material |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Yang-2018">{{Cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=Sixie |last2=Zhang |first2=Fan |last3=Ding |first3=Huaiping |last4=He |first4=Ping |last5=Zhou |first5=Haoshen |date=2018-09-19 |title=Lithium Metal Extraction from Seawater |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542435118302927 |journal=Joule |language=en |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=1648–1651 |doi=10.1016/j.joule.2018.07.006 |bibcode=2018Joule...2.1648Y |s2cid=189702476 |issn=2542-4351 |access-date=21 October 2020 |archive-date=19 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119111157/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542435118302927 |url-status=live}}</ref> Ion-selective cells within a membrane in principle could collect lithium either by use of [[electric field]] or a concentration difference.<ref name="Yang-2018" /> In 2024, a redox/electrodialysis system was claimed to offer enormous cost savings, shorter timelines, and less environmental damage than traditional evaporation-based systems.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ghoshal |first=Abhimanyu |date=2024-08-27 |title=Stanford breakthrough promises 50% cheaper, cleaner lithium extraction |url=https://newatlas.com/materials/cheaper-cleaner-lithium-extraction/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=053646e762-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_08_27_01_57&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-053646e762-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=New Atlas |language=en-US}}</ref>