Lithium, manganese, and zinc from the most prolific hydrothermal brine resource in the world

[txlibdem]

I read about this company in the March 2012 issue of Popular Science but here's a link to a 2011 article about the company and it's process for extracting Lithium from geothermal power plant cooling water:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-11/startup-will-strip-waste-lithium-geothermal-power-plants-increasing-us-production

Smart idea since it would otherwise be wasted anyway... and electric cars need only a small amount for their batteries... this will turn the US into a Lithium exporter. Oh, and it shows the lie of "scarce Lithium reserves" and "Lithium shortage" claims and "we can't make enough batteries for all of us to drive electric vehicles" BS claims.

Start-Up in California Plans to Capture Lithium, and Market Share
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: September 28, 2011

A start-up company will announce on Wednesday that it is beginning commercial operations at a factory in Southern California to capture lithium from existing geothermal energy plants, a technology it says has the potential to turn the United States into a major lithium exporter.

The plant, built by Simbol Materials near the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley, will also capture manganese and zinc.

None of the materials that Simbol plans to produce are so-called rare earths, but a study by the American Physical Society in February identified lithium and zinc as likely to be very important in the new energy economy of the future. The society considers them “energy critical elements.”

Lithium is a crucial element for batteries that power electric cars, and manganese is used in batteries and in specialty metal production. The United States imports much of its lithium and does not produce any manganese at all.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/business/energy-environment/simbol-materials-plans-to-extract-lithium-from-geothermal-plants.html?_r=2

Here is a link to the company's site: http://www.simbolmaterials.com/

[hunter]

1. This is interesting.

Maybe lead-acid batteries will be obsolete sooner rather than later.

[txlibdem]

2. ... with the US in a position to be a net exporter of electric vehicle batteries as well

double goodness.