Prospecting For Lithium

[jasong]

I think in lake beds it will be in the form of lithium carbonate or lithium sulfate (or sulfide?). But I have no idea, that's just what I was assuming since the deposits came from evaporation and lithium is unstable in water alone, a carbonate seems a likely stable product. I'm not real great with chemistry and I don't know by which process the lithium ended up in water to start with or where it came from so I'm just guessing and could be totally wrong. Maybe Reno Chris knows? I believe the carbonate form is what is actually sold on the market though so I assumed if it wasn't in that form already that I would have to convert to it in order to sell it or if I wanted to prove the claim and so that was the point I chose to start looking at it the whole box of worms.

That's part of why I was thinking about Raman spectroscopy, you can ID molecules and figure things like that out instead of just looking at atomic fingerprints. Curious not just with lithium but with all kinds of stuff, would be useful and fun to have.

If I ever get the time, energy, and money to build 1% of the projects I think of at 4am I'd be happy.   Reality is most will remain ideas unless I find one that I'm confident will make me money.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Yup, lithium carbonate.

A Preliminary Deposit Model for Lithium Brines

Lithium Resources of North America

The Saudi Arabia of Lithium

 

[Steve Herschbach]

The Great Nevada Lithium Rush to Fuel the New Economy

"The rumblings of underground activity are again being felt on the outskirts of Goldfield, the epicenter of an early 20th century mining boom that for a while made it Nevada’s largest city. This time the rush isn’t for gold or silver or the other traditional minerals that have historically helped fuel the state’s economy, but for a metal crucial to what bankers, regulators, and clean-energy advocates see as the imminent transformation of the transportation sector and the electric grid: lithium."

Excellent new article on Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-29/the-great-nevada-lithium-rush-to-fuel-the-new-economy

 

[jasong]

Interesting article.

I read a week ago that one of the largest lithium deposits in the US may actually be in Wyoming and not Nevada, it's 12,000ft underground though, discovered by finding lithium in injection well returns. Which is one way a person could prospect for lithium (and other minerals/elements) I suppose, just test a bunch of water or springs whenever you find them.

I know there is at least one guy in NV prospecting for commercial gold deposits with this method, a drill mounted on a truck and testing the ground water returns for gold ions or something along that line.

[Steve Herschbach]

Australia's Lithium Rush

"A scramble by the lithium market’s biggest players to tie up supply of the high-tech metal is gathering pace in the 170-year-old heartland of Australia’s $90 billion mining industry."

[iMine]

Bummer I just wrote a business plan up today who's focus is REE deposits. I have my work cut out for me then eh :)