Earlier quoted context omitted.
How? You push the dust 10000 ft up over the San Jacinto range against the prevailing winds… somehow? You don’t even get a downslope enhancement because the Salton Sea is lower than the Pacific. Or somehow the wind curves through the San Gorgonio Pass and back around to Los Angeles? You and what pressure gradient? I’m a meteorologist, so if you know the dynamics here, please explain.
When you get particulate matter that fine, it needs almost no energy to get lifted up way into the atmosphere. the heavier stuff? No, it won't go very far. Lithium dust? It's less dense than the atmosphere. It can go anywhere with not much effort.
That’s not how this works. You don’t get individual Lithium molecules, you get LiCl or LiNO3 mixed with other salts in in sizes from grams to micrograms. The largest bits will fall out of air suspension first.