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A War is Brewing Over Lithium Mining at the Edge of Death Valley (latimes.com) 180

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: A small Cessna soared high above the Mojave Desert recently, its engine growling in the choppy morning air. As the aircraft skirted the mountains on the edge of Death Valley National Park, a clutch of passengers and environmentalists peered intently at a broiling salt flat thousands of feet below. The desolate beauty of the Panamint Valley has long drawn all manner of naturalists, adventurers and social outcasts -- including Charles Manson -- off-road vehicle riders and top gun fighter pilots who blast overhead in simulated dogfights.

Now this prehistoric lake bed is shaping up to be an unlikely battleground between environmentalists and battery technologists who believe the area might hold the key to a carbon-free future. Recently, the Australia-based firm Battery Mineral Resources asked the federal government for permission to drill four exploratory wells to see if the hot, salty brine beneath the valley floor contains economically viable concentrations of lithium. The soft, silvery-white metal is a key component of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and is crucial to the production of electric and hybrid vehicles.

The drilling request has generated strong opposition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Defenders of Wildlife, who say the drilling project would be an initial step toward the creation of a full-scale lithium mining operation. They say lithium extraction would bring industrial sprawl, large and unsightly drying ponds and threaten a fragile ecosystem that supports Nelson's bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and the Panamint alligator lizard, among other species.
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A War is Brewing Over Lithium Mining at the Edge of Death Valley More

A War is Brewing Over Lithium Mining at the Edge of Death Valley

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  • On one hand: A potential for a carbon-free future where this area may not survive, but others will thanks to the development of this area.

    On the other hand: If we don't get climate change under control, *nothing*, including this area, will survive.

    Tough choices to make...

    • On the other hand: If we don't get climate change under control, *nothing*, including this area, will survive.

      What scientist are you quoting here? Nothing will survive? Sounds like you're making stuff up.

  • Be Green (Score:2, Funny)

    by Zorro ( 15797 )

    Drive a Diesel for the wildlife!

  • Recent papers show you can renew Li batteries (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Thursday May 09, 2019 @02:42PM (#58565402) Homepage Journal

    A number of recent papers have been published about how you don't just need lithium salts to be processed to make Lithium batteries, but you can literally renew them by some salt marshes and other concentrated alkaline lakes, allowing you to reduce reuse and recycle the batteries many times over. Surprisingly, these types of alkaline water sources are fairly common, not as hard to find as these dried out lake and ocean beds we use for making the batteries in the first place

    (source: IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., 67 (2018), pp. 5695-5705, 10.1109/TVT.2018.2805189) which is part of a compilation Sustainability Journel in press

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by guruevi ( 827432 )

      If it was financially viable, don't you think companies like Tesla would be all over it? Mining anything is hard and expensive and dangerous, anytime anyone could do without they would immediately stop.

      In other news, Germany re-opens it coal mines to power it's coal plants so it can sustain it's massive 'green' (aka anti-nuclear) development.

      • Um, dude, this is breaking research. Usually it takes us a few years to develop fully expressed patents and working models. For example, flexible solar cell windows used to be just a concept, then were proven in research, then material scientists figured how to make them in quantity, and now we have a few giant buildings at the UW that are powered literally by the sunlight on their windows. Yes, you can see through them.

        This is how science works.

        You can both replace coal and replace natural gas, by the way,

      • Germany wasn't using much nuclear to begin with.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by angel'o'sphere ( 80593 )

        In other news, Germany re-opens it coal mines
        Erm, no?

        to power it's coal plants so
        Erm, no? Coal power is on a steady decline since decades

        it can sustain it's massive 'green' (aka anti-nuclear) development.
        Erm, no? Nukes are still running ... you seem to miss that? And they get replaced by wind and solar mostly and biomass to a smaller extent ... you seem not to be informed that Germany is the one country in the world that transformed its power grid from nearly zero renewables to close to 50% renewables ov

      • In other news, Germany re-opens it coal mines to power it's coal plants so it can sustain it's massive 'green' (aka anti-nuclear) development.

        Germany closed it's last coal mine last year. Sure they still import coal, but the only new coal plant they've built was to replace one they decommissioned next door. There has not been in increase in coal power production or coal consumption in Germany in the past 10 years, even during the exercise of shutting down nukes. In the next 3 years this will come to head when the last 9.5GWe of nuclear capacity is due to be decommissioned. The plan is to cut 15GWe of coal in that same period.

        Where you getting you

  • First world double-standard (Score:5, Insightful)

    by azcoyote ( 1101073 ) on Thursday May 09, 2019 @02:43PM (#58565408)

    I love the environment and agree that it needs to be protected. However, the deeper story here is that we in the first world are typically fine with destructive exploitation so long as it happens on somebody else's land. Any environmentalist who has a fancy cell phone has to realize that the battery materials came from somewhere and often at a grave environmental and/or social cost. The same goes for those who insist that we cannot drill for oil in the United States, but still drive their luxurious gas-guzzling cars on oil brought in from somewhere else.

    Clearly the real issue is that we need to dramatically reduce the way we use energy and resources. But until then, we Americans have to honestly accept that our own homeland has to bear a significant portion of the cost of our exploitative way of living. Why should poor people in another country have to stare at an ugly mining pit just so that we can enjoy the benefits with none of the pain? Perhaps if we relied more on domestic sources then we would be more realistic about the consequences of our lifestyles and better able to cut back on waste. In other words, an intelligent environmentalist needs also to see a local issue in terms of its broader, global economic impact.

    • I am an environmental purist. I think all humans should die.

      WW3 here we go! Can't have environmental catastrophe without humans, amirite.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I am an environmental purist. I think all humans should die.

        WW3 here we go! Can't have environmental catastrophe without humans, amirite.

        You're an environmental purist WITHOUT AN IMAGINATION! WWIII is the best you could do?!? Why no pandemic? Why no grey goo? WHY NO GODZILLA!!!

        • Hey, leave me alone! I can only think in pre-industrial terms. Anything published after that was created on the emissions that is destroying the planet! That is why I advocate for the sensible yet simple Eco-friendly destruction of the human race. WW3 is the best luddites can do.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Hey, leave me alone! I can only think in pre-industrial terms. Anything published after that was created on the emissions that is destroying the planet! That is why I advocate for the sensible yet simple Eco-friendly destruction of the human race. WW3 is the best luddites can do.

            You may be better off calling it the "Final Crusade" or the "Luddites Crusade" than "WW3" in that case since we'll need to fight it using medieval weaponry, no? Can't hurt toss in the religious angle as well. We really want folks wound up about this.

            Do you have a informational pamphlet I can subscribe too, or do I need to listen for the town crier for updates? I'm not sure if your novelty account using Slashdot is an intentional anachronism or not. I'd prefer an RSS feed, but not sure if it's acceptable

    • Any environmentalist who has a fancy cell phone has to realize that the battery materials came from somewhere

      That's optimistic.

      • I make mine from apples lemons and limes grown sustainably on my relatives farms near Santa Barbara ... don't you?

        (pro tip: it makes them smell better too)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      because those people want to make money; and otherwise raise their standard of living. Maybe they want to be able to drive a car themselves or have a smart phone and Internet access; maybe they want that more than the unspoiled view in the back yard.

      Stop being so judgemental. Its a choice.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Well no, it will damage that environment, that is exactly what mines and farms to they damage the natural environment to replace it with another, in this case, evaporations pans. Which is kind of why we have national parks to preserve natural environment, ohh look there is a massive one right next door, 13,650.30 km2, well there you go. Look if it is in the national park or tips rubbish into the national park, fine protest. Outside of the park, if it impacts people, fine protest. Otherwise don't be dicks an

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Any environmentalist who has a fancy cell phone has to realize that the battery materials came from somewhere and often at a grave environmental and/or social cost.

      That's a fallacy. It's possible to care about the environment but also take a pragmatic approach that we need to sustain or improve our quality of life while taking care of it.

      After all, arguing that we should go back to an agrarian society is both pointless (it will never be accepted) and wouldn't actually fix a lot of the problems anyway.

  • it was a dark and stormy night...
  • Lithium mining typically involves pumping brine out of the ground into a series of big evaporation ponds, and scraping up the evaporate for further refinement. The brine wells might be low impact but the evaporation ponds wouldn't be. And then there's potentially a lot of heavy vehicle traffic.

    • A pipeline to an area of lower impact wouldn't be crazy except for the fact that I imagine that brine is going to cause much faster wear on the pipes.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Good thing there is literally thousands of square miles of it there. Generously, evaporation ponds might require 2-3 square miles of land (that's a huge amount of evap pond). Not an insignificant impact, but compared to the ecological damage from oil drilling, pit mining, strip mining and other activities it doesn't even register.

  • I'd be interested to know if the additional water vapor downwind from the drying ponds would be beneficial to the ecosystem.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      I'd be interested to know if the additional water vapor downwind from the drying ponds would be beneficial to the ecosystem.

      That probably depends entirely on what specie perspective you look at it from.

      Think of light pollution - its bad news if you are predator, its great if you are a mouse; because now you can see danger approach.

  • Ghost Towns will thrive again! (Score:3)

    by MemoryAid ( 675811 ) on Thursday May 09, 2019 @03:38PM (#58565746)
    Does anybody know a good realtor in Ballarat, CA [desertusa.com]?
    • Ballarat. I've been there and to many other mining areas in the desert. Go see it if you can. Desert USA is a great place for information.

  • I come from that part of the Desert (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09, 2019 @03:57PM (#58565852)

    Amazingly, I come from that part of the desert. Let me tell you the things the article leaves out. First, Panamint Valley is less than pristine. There are many, many mines in the general mountain areas. 2nd, just south of Panamint Valley is Searles Valley, home to the town of Trona. Trona has a VERY large Borax mining facility that takes brine from a dry lake bed, refines it (sometimes by using an evaporative pond), takes out the borax and then pumps the brine solution back into the dry lake bed to take up more minerals. 3rd, getting water out there for mining is not going to be easy or cheap. They will not get it from the north, south, or east. Mountains are in the way. The cheapest way I can see them getting water is by piping it in from Ridgecrest, CA. So I'm gestimating 40-60 miles of piping.

    I actual grew up in Trona, it had a VERY good school system in the 80's. Lastly, don't let your car break down out in the Panamints. I don't think they have cell phone service (but I could be wrong on that). Had a friend who was part of a group doing 4 wheeling. Their truck broke down. When the Search and Rescue team found them 18 hours later they were so dehydrated that they literally could not spit. Another day and they would have all died.

    Gordon

    • Panamint Valley is the only remaining valley managed by the BLM Ridgecrest Field Office that is not developed. Just because there are relict mines in the boundary ranges (not really visible from the valley) and a borax operation in the Searles doesn't mean that the Panamint deserves to be sacrificed. I've camped and visited there several times, and it is a wild place full of life that is worth saving.

    • I didn't grow up there but spent a lot of time in Panamint. It isn't completely pristine but is pretty close and has that high desert austere beauty, flanked by mountains on both sides. Actually Trona and Searles Valley mentioned by the OP make a good cautionary tale for Panamint -- Trona and Searles Valley stink, from the evaporation ponds I assume. Getting over the pass between Searles and Panamint Valleys is striking; leaving the industrial wasteland of Searles and breaking out into the wide open and c

  • As I understand it, less than 3% of vehicles are electric powered.

    Is there enough lithium for a future where 90% of vehicles are powered by lithium?

    If we are seeing the beginning of a lithium shortage now, how realistic is the idea of lithium-ion powered future?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Price. Get that price to a point where it makes a profit to explore nations.
      Bring in roads, water, power, rail.
      Make the needed infrastructure work at that price.
      Extract the raw material. Have workers do work until the lithium is ready for sale.
      When all that gets done and profit is made, then it's good.
      Can another nation prevent that with a price reduction of their own until work in the US becomes too loss making and has to stop?

    • Is there enough lithium for a future where 90% of vehicles are powered by lithium?
      As lithium is one of the most common elements on earth: yes.

      If we are seeing the beginning of a lithium shortage now, there was a shortage a few years ago, because many mines closed because the price for lithium dropped on the world market. One of the times when 101 economics as in supply vs. demand is counterintuitive ... very high demand but also high supply and price crashed, hence mines closed ... so we had a shortage.

  • Time to earn some of that green power, zero emission vehicle cred.

  • Wind Turbines or Salt Flats? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "large and unsightly drying ponds" this is the same complaint many people have against wind turbine farms which many environmental groups push. Drying ponds have a much smaller visual impact than the wind turbine farms. Too many of the mainstream environmental groups have become extremists

  • You can't try and build anything anywhere without environmentalists driving up in their SUVs and causing trouble

  • The majority of Lithium is used to make ceramics, glass, and grease. But don't let facts get in the way of your masturbating over this "oh the environmentalists are s so stoopid!!!" story.

  • This Isn't Even The Best Source In California (Score:5, Interesting)

    by crunchygranola ( 1954152 ) on Thursday May 09, 2019 @09:52PM (#58567064)

    That is probably the Salton Sea Geothermal Fields in the Imperial Valley that contains an estimated 2 million tons of lithium, at current world consumption rates this is a 20 year supply for the entire world, worth about $30 billion at current prices.This also currently a site of geothermal power production by CalEnergy and EnergySource, so industrial operations are already conducted there.

    Why doesn't Australia-based firm Battery Mineral Resources want to develop this area? I don't know, but perhaps they don't think they can secure the rights to exploit it with other industrial operations already tenants on the site.

    There is no reason why California should despoil the very beautiful Panamint Valley (I've been there many times) which is really quite close to pristine, to provide revenue to an Australian company, when there is currently no lithium shortage in the world. I do hope the lithium potential of the Salton Sea area is developed however, even if Australia-based firm Battery Mineral Resources doesn't get a cut.

  • Someone doesn't understand power generation. At best, it would be

    a no carbon generated at the end user future

    . Instead the carbon will be generated mining the lithium, refining the lithium, making the batteries, and generating the electricity to charge the batteries. And, that leaves out all the other pollution involved with creating the batteries and disposing of batteries that stop holding a charge or are simply dead.

  • We need the lithium to move away from fossil fuels. It provides not just storage for vehicles, but ideally for buildings and utilities to enable renewables to help with our grid. This is no different than needing Nuclear energy.

    It is great to protect the environment. However, when we do things like this, it just goes to show how insane our nation has become. Extremism in AMerica is destroying us.

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