The lithium revolution has arrived at California's Salton Sea

I&#x27;m curious if anyone knows what happened to Rio Tinto&#x27;s lithium extraction project from their Boron, CA mines [1]. They finished a demonstration years ago that extracted lithium from the brine waste from borax mining but I haven&#x27;t heard anything about it since.<p>Even if they couldn&#x27;t make it economically feasible I figured they&#x27;d at least use the same technology&#x2F;setup for Salton Sea lithium mining.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.riotinto.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;releases&#x2F;2021&#x2F;Rio-Tinto-achieves-battery-grade-lithium-production-at-Boron-plant" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.riotinto.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;releases&#x2F;2021&#x2F;Rio-Tinto-achiev...</a>

There&#x27;s an older geothermal power plant at the Salton Sea where the scale that gets deposited in the pipes is a kind of high grade silver ore, including native silver metal. It&#x27;s not economically exploitable, but it does provide a model for the formation of actual silver ore bodies.

Marketplace&#x27;s &quot;How We Survive&quot; did an episode on the Salton Sea.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.marketplace.org&#x2F;shows&#x2F;how-we-survive&#x2F;gnarly-brine&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.marketplace.org&#x2F;shows&#x2F;how-we-survive&#x2F;gnarly-brin...</a><p>The whole podcast is excellent.

I remember watching a documentary on the Salton Sea and it interviewed some residents who were holding out that eventually there was gonna be a turn around and kept buying real estate in the hope of that. I wonder how they&#x27;re fairing now with this latest development<p>Doc in question: Plagues &amp; Pleasures on the Salton Sea <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=8TjGAWxL23c" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=8TjGAWxL23c</a>

<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20240125190709&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;environment&#x2F;newsletter&#x2F;2024-01-25&#x2F;column-the-lithium-revolution-has-arrived-at-californias-salton-sea-boiling-point" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20240125190709&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latime...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;rRUez" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;rRUez</a>

Well, since the Salton Sea is otherwise useless, this is a step forward.

I mean let’s not pretend that Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t own interests in 10 of the 11 lithium projects at this location.<p>This is a very big money project and it was <i>always</i> going to happen. They kept pretending like there was some debate but it seems mostly just optics management than any reality.