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Lithium: The Untold Story Of The Magic Mineral That Charges Cell Phones And Preserves Memory

As far as cosmologists can tell, there were only three elements present when the universe was first formed some 13.8 billion years ago: hydrogen, helium, and lithium. As one of the three original elements, lithium is found throughout our atmosphere. The sun, stars, and meteorites burn brightly with the flame of this highly reactive element. On earth, lithium remains a major mineral component of granite rock, and also lingers in significant amounts in sea water, mineral springs, and soils. Lithium has also found its way into our cell phones, electric cars, and holiday fireworks. Every organ and tissue in the human body contains the mineral lithium, with particular importance in brain health.

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Featured

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Lithium is crucial for the transition to renewables, but mining it has been environmentally costly. Now a more sustainable source of lithium has been found deep beneath our feet.

Articles of Interest

The Paradox of Lithium

The race toward net-zero emissions depends heavily on lithium — to power electric vehicles, to store wind and solar power. This element of the periodic table is one of the main protagonists of the economic and infrastructural transformation that we are experiencing today. Our dependence on lithium recalls that of oil and coal that transformed our society in the past. At the time, however, the long-term effects of burning fossil fuels were unknown, whereas today, we know of the highly negative aspects of lithium extraction on the environment.

Lithium: Not as clean as we thought

While electric cars reduce fossil fuel emissions once they are on the road, the production of the lithium-ion batteries that power them causes more displacement and CO2 emissions than the production of regular gas-powered cars. Disposal of the batteries at the end of their life cycle is also a growing concern.

Concerns on the Growing Use of Lithium: The Pros and Cons

The Greek word, lithos means stone that is the origin of a metal named “lithium” (Li), the 27 the most abundant, the lightest alkali, highly reactive and flammable metal within chemical elements. Li is never found freely in the nature due to high reactivity and easily found as a soluble ion in water, so that it is ordinary gained from brines and clays.

EU Proposal to Call Lithium Toxic May Affect Refining Projects

The metal was found to be potentially toxic to pregnant women in a study.

In Chile's desert lie vast reserves of lithium — key for electric car batteries

In the middle of the desert in northern Chile, massive pools of Caribbean blue water sit next to what appear to be snowdrifts. But this is a lithium mine. The pools are filled with salty groundwater that contains lithium. It's a key component in the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, solar panels and other green technologies

Inside the Lithium Mining War That Could Poison the Nevada Desert’s Water

A mining giant wants to extract lithium from the Nevada desert to power electric cars. But a more sustainable future doesn’t come without costs.

It’s not necessary to trash the environment to extract metals needed for renewable energy

Can we change mining technology to reduce its footprint? There is an active community of researchers that says yes. Here are some current avenues of investigation...

Meet Lithium, the Future's Most Important Mineral

Once instrumental in curbing mood disorders, it's now an integral component in batteries for everything from iPhones to electric cars. No mineral is more important to tomorrow—and this quick guide will get you acquainted.

Raw materials, or sacred beings? Lithium extraction puts two worldviews into tension

A rapid escalation of lithium extraction in the Bolivian Andes also represents a looming clash between two fundamentally different views of nature: modern industrial society’s and that of the Indigenous communities who call the region home – a focus of my current research collaborations and dissertation project.

Revealed: how US transition to electric cars threatens environmental havoc

The US’s transition to electric vehicles could require three times as much lithium as is currently produced for the entire global market, causing needless water shortages, Indigenous land grabs, and ecosystem destruction inside and outside its borders, new research finds.

The curse of 'white oil': electric vehicles' dirty secret

The race is on to find a steady source of lithium, a key component in rechargeable electric car batteries. But while the EU focuses on emissions, the lithium gold rush threatens environmental damage on an industrial scale

The Lithium Gold Rush: Inside the Race to Power Electric Vehicles

A race is on to produce lithium in the United States, but competing projects are taking very different approaches to extracting the vital raw material. Some might not be very green.

The side effects of lithium mining

What was becoming increasingly clear to me was that my medication came at a devastating cost to Indigenous livelihoods – and lives.

Resources

Protect Thacker Pass

Protect Thacker Pass is a grassroots movement to protect Thacker Pass and the McDermitt Caldera in Northern Nevada and Southern Oregon from mining projects like Lithium Nevada Corporation’s Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project.