GB_Amateur Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 Jason, I'm impressed with your ambition to think outside-the-box, even to the level of building instruments to solve problems. Please keep us (well, me at least ) informed as you move forward. (As usual) I don't understand something. You talk about lithium carbonate as a native ore/compound. In my (simple) searches I've only seen four primary, cost effective sources of lithium, all minerals: spodumene, lepidolite, pentalite, and amblygonite. The first three are silicon based and the last phosphorous based -- no carbonates. Is the lithium found in these dry lake beds a different form/chemical compound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasong Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 Yup, lithium carbonate. A Preliminary Deposit Model for Lithium Brines Lithium Resources of North America The Saudi Arabia of Lithium 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasong Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 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." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iMine Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 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 :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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