California Company Looking at Geothermal Plants as a Lithium Source

California’s Simbol Materials is taking a novel approach to mining lithium: the company extracts lithium brine from the wastewater of geothermal energy plants. The company has mined a few hundred tons of lithium, but has not yet developed commercial scale facilities, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

As quoted in the publication:

Instead of allowing the brine to be pumped back down, Simbol Materials redirects the warm brine and extracts the lithium by passing the brine through membranes and filters. Currently, the company has already managed to mine a few hundred tons of lithium. It is believed that if Simbol can efficiently expand to a commercial-scale facility, it would have advantages over present mining practices for lithium.

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