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Lithium, Can the 6000 find it, hmmm where do you find it. There is a predicted world shortage by 2025, price as of 4/15/22 485,000. Yuan per tonne. Depressing news… I feel both ways about this.

Lithium

Lithium (pronounced /ˈlɪθiəm/) is the chemical element with atomic number 3, and is represented by the symbol Li. It is a soft alkali metal with a silver-white color. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals lithium is highly reactive, corroding quickly in moist air to form a black tarnish. For this reason lithium metal is typically stored under the cover of oil. When cut open lithium exhibits a metallic luster, but contact with oxygen quickly turns it back to a dull silvery gray color. Lithium in its elemental state is highly flammable.

According to theory, lithium was one of the few elements synthesized in the Big Bang. Since its current estimated abundance in the universe is vastly less than that predicted by theory; the processes by which new lithium is created and destroyed, and the true value of its abundance, continue to be active matters of study in astronomy. The nuclei of lithium are relatively fragile: the two stable lithium isotopes found in nature have lower binding energies per nucleon than any other stable compound nuclides, save for the exotic and rare deuterium, and 3He. Though very light in atomic weight, lithium is less common in the solar system than 25 of the first 32 chemical elements. 

Due to its high reactivity it only appears naturally in the form of compounds. Lithium occurs in a number of pegmatitic minerals, but is also commonly obtained from brines and clays. On a commercial scale, lithium metal is isolated electrolytically from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.

Trace amounts of lithium are present in the oceans and in some organisms, though the element serves no apparent vital biological function in humans. However, the lithium ion Li+ administered as any of several lithium salts has proved to be useful as a mood stabilizing drug due to neurological effects of the ion in the human body. Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat-resistant glass and ceramics, high strength-to-weight alloys used in aircraft, and lithium batteries. Lithium also has important links to nuclear physics. The transmutation of lithium atoms to tritium was the first man-made form of a nuclear fusion reaction, and lithium deuteride serves as a fusion fuel in staged thermonuclear weapons.

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Interesting question on if a metal detector can find it, that is a good question to the point that I don't have an answer.

Because it is used in thermonuclear weapons should I quit taking it?

Good luck on finding out how to detect it.

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Wandering down rabbit holes and stumble into the lightest metal, lol seemed easy pickings for the 6000, ha ha with  the side benefit of an overall better mood from casual exposures below those required to make explosives. I also read there is evidence it may disrupt the brains chemical processes that cause Alzheimer’s and while not effective for all still a useful medication for some.

And I forget what you call them, but let’s not forget the batteries… rechargeable something? I think it supplied mostly from China? I read someplace there were deposits in the southwest but don’t remember where that was, I need some lithium does it help for memory, probably not I don’t remember.

 Klunker would know, I have no idea why I believe this and am not suggesting any association or dependence on battery power last I read the Jeep is still fossil fueling but, I believe… we must have a nucular fizamasist here?

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He is very dependable at least to the point of showing up every year for as long as I can remember and you seldom see his mood change… private stash.

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Lithium does not occur as a native metal, therefore it will never be found with a metal detector.... unless you count dead batteries as a 'resource' 😉

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Around 2 years ago we had approval, to detect on the E36 Lease or adjacent lease (40E) in the Kathleen Valley spoke to a Geo and he confirmed they were looking for Lithium and they had a number of drill holes in the area, there were old patches in the area, unfortunately no gold was left,  and definitely no Lithium, we did better (gold) elsewhere..

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/majestic-options-prospective-lithium-tenements-130000353.html

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I don't know about hard rock lithium ores like spodumene being detectable, I'd guess no. But in dried lake/sea beds lithium is very small in concentration compared to the other salts, mostly sodium based. I'm not sure there are any economic cases where sodium salts aren't the dominant soil component, so it'd be impossible to tell wether you had sodium or lithium salt with a metal detector. Just that you found some conductive salts, which you can tell even cheaper by just tasting the soil or looking it usually (ex: alkalis). 

I tried building a photospectrometer to do flame tests for lithium in NV lake beds a while back in order to differentiate sodium from lithium, and as a way to prospect for it. Even that was mostly impossible because the sodium spectral lines are so strong they blow out the lithium, so again it was impossible to differentiate the two.

Unfortunately the only good way I know of to prospect for lithium is sending assays in (or buying an atomic absoprtion or other spectrometer, XRF won't detect lithium) and waiting a month for results to come back. Do that and watch some large company come in and just blanket stake everything under you while you wait for assay results, wether there is actually lithium there or not, and you realize lithium prospecting is mostly in the domain of larger companies that can afford to file hundreds or thousands of claims on nothing except pure speculation, and without knowing if there is actually any economic concentrations of lithium there or not.

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Jason, thanks for the help, lithium sounds like one of those things we can walk over not knowing it’s there and not feel to bad about it then, lol no pun intended.
 

Geology is really where I still feel very deficient I think I’m getting better at seeing some indicators but only the basics really, there’s a lot of rocks in real life that I can’t tell apart and probably most other things other than gold and meteorites that are obvious. Some of the various jades I know a little about, but in our prospecting areas thinking about it gold is obviously pretty easy to identify, most of the other commercially valuable commodities I’m more likely to not know what I have.

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