Your place or mine? The local business of lithium mining

By Hayley Bennett and Kirsty Patterson2020-11-30T10:23:00

Source: © Shutterstock

Lithium-ion batteries will power the next generation of electric cars, but how can we mine lithium with minimal impact on the environment?

Thousands of tonnes of lithium are extracted each year in countries like Chile and Australia and find their way into our mobile phones and tablets in the form of lithium-ion batteries. Increasingly, we’re also using these batteries to power low emissions vehicles. Recently, there has been a proposal to extract high-grade lithium from salty hot springs in Redruth, Cornwall. This article considers the extraction of lithium while minimising the impact on the environment and local communities and the possibilities of lithium recycling, and includes a downloadable resource considering lithium mining, separating mixtures and periodic table trends.

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