The Express News Line highlights a discovery that is occurring all around the world that geothermal areas exude a brine that is often very rich in Lithium. In this case, Cornish Lithium is exploring a 15 mile stretch of a peninsula to explore the extent of the Lithium. They are consulting with companies like MGX Minerals and Canada and Pure Energy Minerals, which appear to extract the lithium using evaporation ponds. The companies also suggesting that they might also strike oil or gas should the drilling not hit brine with lithium in it. At the same time in the same area, may projects are planned to create electric power plants from the same brine.
I am not sure whether the two groups are talking to each other or not but they might want to look at what is going on at the Salton Sea where they have not only managed to create a large geothermal electric plant but used some its power output to power a lithium extraction plant.
The geothermal plant the Salton Sea requires a very small surface area to operate, this is true of all geothermal plants the smallest foot print of any energy plant clean or dirty. The way it operates is the hot brine is brought to the surface in a closed pipe and then put through a heat exchanger which heats as a secondary liquid that flashes into steam powering large electric turbines. The brine is then sent in a closed pipe to the extraction plant, which extracts the lithium and other minerals from the brine. Once the extraction process is completed the brine in a closed pipe is reinjected into the mineral rich area it came from to be recycled.
It seems to me that it would be in the better interest of everyone to combine lithium extract with the production of geothermal energy, for a myriad of reasons.
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