Scientists make 'huge' $540 billion discovery at the bottom of a giant lake [View all]

[NJCher]

Story by Greg Evans, Indy 100

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Michael McKibben, a geochemistry professor at the University of California, Riverside, who was one of the 22 authors on the study said: "This is one of the largest lithium brine deposits in the world. This could make the United States completely self-sufficient in lithium and stop importing it through China."

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, previously referred to the Salton Lake as Saudi Arabia of lithium. Now this new discovery means that the lake is the biggest source of lithium in the world.

The LA Times climate journalist Sammy Roth, told KJZZ radio: "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."

According to SFGATE, getting to the lithium will not be easy and will require "geothermal production wells to extract the lithium-rich brine from thousands of feet below the earth’s surface, and once the lithium is dissolved from the brine, the liquid is pumped back underground."

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More at link.