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Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study

Electric cars will require to increase the production of lithium dramatically (up to 2 Mtons lithium equivalent carbonate per year by 2030). However, conventional hard-rock and salar mining are facing environmental and social concerns. Therefore, alternative lithium resources may help meeting the gl...

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Autores principales: Dugamin, Elza J. M., Richard, Antonin, Cathelineau, Michel, Boiron, Marie-Christine, Despinois, Frank, Brisset, Anne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8548349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34702944
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99912-7
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author Dugamin, Elza J. M.
Richard, Antonin
Cathelineau, Michel
Boiron, Marie-Christine
Despinois, Frank
Brisset, Anne
author_facet Dugamin, Elza J. M.
Richard, Antonin
Cathelineau, Michel
Boiron, Marie-Christine
Despinois, Frank
Brisset, Anne
author_sort Dugamin, Elza J. M.
collection PubMed
description Electric cars will require to increase the production of lithium dramatically (up to 2 Mtons lithium equivalent carbonate per year by 2030). However, conventional hard-rock and salar mining are facing environmental and social concerns. Therefore, alternative lithium resources may help meeting the global demand for the next decades. Here, we provide a systematic analysis of published lithium concentration in about 3000 samples of groundwater from 48 sedimentary basins worldwide. The highest lithium concentrations (> 10(2) mg l(−1)) are primarily found in high salinity waters (Total Dissolved Solids > 10(5) mg l(−1)) and are in the same range as brines from the most productive salars. Conservative estimations based on fluid volume and lithium concentration in selected reservoirs indicate that these lithium resources are comparable to salars and hard-rock mines (0.1–10 Mtons lithium). Therefore, lithium in groundwater from sedimentary basins could be a significant potential resource for the next decades.
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spelling pubmed-85483492021-10-27 Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study Dugamin, Elza J. M. Richard, Antonin Cathelineau, Michel Boiron, Marie-Christine Despinois, Frank Brisset, Anne Sci Rep Article Electric cars will require to increase the production of lithium dramatically (up to 2 Mtons lithium equivalent carbonate per year by 2030). However, conventional hard-rock and salar mining are facing environmental and social concerns. Therefore, alternative lithium resources may help meeting the global demand for the next decades. Here, we provide a systematic analysis of published lithium concentration in about 3000 samples of groundwater from 48 sedimentary basins worldwide. The highest lithium concentrations (> 10(2) mg l(−1)) are primarily found in high salinity waters (Total Dissolved Solids > 10(5) mg l(−1)) and are in the same range as brines from the most productive salars. Conservative estimations based on fluid volume and lithium concentration in selected reservoirs indicate that these lithium resources are comparable to salars and hard-rock mines (0.1–10 Mtons lithium). Therefore, lithium in groundwater from sedimentary basins could be a significant potential resource for the next decades. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8548349/ /pubmed/34702944 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99912-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Dugamin, Elza J. M.
Richard, Antonin
Cathelineau, Michel
Boiron, Marie-Christine
Despinois, Frank
Brisset, Anne
Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study
title Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study
title_full Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study
title_fullStr Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study
title_full_unstemmed Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study
title_short Groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study
title_sort groundwater in sedimentary basins as potential lithium resource: a global prospective study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8548349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34702944
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99912-7
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