Energy Source has discovered a breakthrough in the extraction of lithium, manganese and zinc from geothermal brine at the Salton Sea using waste water from a geothermal electric plant. The following diagram shows the process.
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| This is a Diagram of the Intial Extraction Process before Energy Source's Breakthrough |
What is exciting about this process is the energy need to run the extraction plant comes from the geothermal electric plant that supplies the waste water, so it is not using fossil fuels in its process. It is, in fact, a waste free, low energy, and low land impact process. In the past, we would have had to rely on open pit mines and fossil fuel processing plants to achieve what this company has achieved. They I think have discovered a 21st-century method of mining!
As it sits today there are 19 operating geothermal plants in the Imperial county. More are plant the largest being one proposed by an Australian company called Controlled Thermal Resources. This new plant will be called the Hell's Kitchen plant and it will be five times bigger than any of the other plants.
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