r/science • u/Sort_of_Frightening • Sep 10 '23

Chemistry Lithium discovery in U.S. volcano could be biggest deposit ever found

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/lithium-discovery-in-us-volcano-could-be-biggest-deposit-ever-found/4018032.article
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u/shufflebuffalo Sep 10 '23

I'm not worried about lithium. I'm worried about aluminum. Lots of red sand and hugely energetically expensive to refine, unlike lithium. While the batteries will require lithium, the chassis, construction material, and raw material to build will require other metals. Copper, iron, cobalt, nickel. Etc. While I know this is a resource rich country, it's the cost of extracting and refining these metals that's the truthteller in this tale of the green revolution.

I've got my hopes. I'm sure engineers will figure something out that will let us have our cake and eat it too. But looking back on the pioneering days of America, it's hard to not notice what natural treasures we lost.

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u/PHATsakk43 Sep 10 '23

Why do you think Alcoa is the second biggest electricity producer in NC behind Duke Energy?

They’ve shipped their smelting overseas, but kept all the hydro power plants they built to power them.

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u/Ad_Honorem1 Sep 11 '23

Aluminium is also incredibly easy to recycle and much cheaper to recycle than produce.