Lithium for everyone!
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/energy-environme...
USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
131–140 of 237 posts
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#132Lithium for everyone! https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/energy-environme...
Wall-free: https://archive.today/59cJH
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would assume any positive effects are balanced out by living in Arkansas.
My only experience with Arkansas was waking up to a speeding ticket at 3 in the morning. Who puts out a speed trap at 3 in the fucking morning? But if it’s anything like Oklahoma…
> waking up
you were sleeping and driving? lol
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your description of the location of this mine doesn't match your Wikipedia link. Searching in Google Maps, Thacker Mine comes up as 40.58448942010599, -117.8912129833345. As you say, that is near I-80 and Mill City, and there is nothing there. But Wikipedia says it's at 41.70850912415866, -118.05475061324945 in the McDermitt Caldera, nowhere near Mill City or I-80. I'm thinking probably don't trust Google on this one…
Looks like Google got "Thacker Pass Lithium Mine" in the McDermitt Caldera confused with an old gold mine called "Thacker Placer Mine" that was southeast of Mill City: https://westernmininghistory.com/mine-detail/10042614/
Yeah I asked Google Gemini to make a map showing the three principle lithium developments of Nevada and it pinned the historical Thacker Mine, not the new Thacker Pass Mine.
Then I asked chatgpt and it refused to make a map but said that I should just look on the map for Thacker Pass, which is almost right but it also said I should look northeast of Winnemucca, which isn't correct. It's north and west.
Zero for two, for robots.
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#135Well I guess this is a good win for short term energy infrastructure, though I'm always pretty torn when its at the cost of ripping open huge swaths of earth to get at the raw material. It is interesting to see how much of this data could be modelled based on wastewater brines from other industries in the area, assuming we go on to mine the lithium it will say a lot if the ML predictions prove accurate. One thing I c…
> ripping open huge swaths of earth
Do you have the same trepidation about aluminum, iron, dish soap, and table salt? I ask because the amount of "ripping open" involved in lithium production is like a speck in the eye of a whale compared to all the other mining. In terms of scale all existing and proposed lithium mines are teensy tiny by the standards of mines.
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#136Well I guess this is a good win for short term energy infrastructure, though I'm always pretty torn when its at the cost of ripping open huge swaths of earth to get at the raw material. It is interesting to see how much of this data could be modelled based on wastewater brines from other industries in the area, assuming we go on to mine the lithium it will say a lot if the ML predictions prove accurate. One thing I c…
> ripping open huge swaths of earth Do you have the same trepidation about aluminum, iron, dish soap, and table salt? I ask because the amount of "ripping open" involved in lithium production is like a speck in the eye of a whale compared to all the other mining. In terms of scale all existing and proposed lithium mines are teensy tiny by the standards of mines.
Sure, yes I do wish that we weren't opening such huge holes as we are for aluminum, iron, coal, etc. I worked in the upstream oil industry for a bit and live in an area heavily coal mined, I just wasn't clear how lithium mining compared and didn't want to assume that damage was on the same scale as the others.
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#137Work in this industry (hard rock mining). Lithium supply is not an issue. Here in oz we have plenty, there is surplus in market (see current lithium prices). Conversion however is an issue, majority of plants are in China. Build some refiners that turn it into lithium carbonate and oz will fill them.
I eagerly anticipate the day Australia becomes the World's Forge. All those minerals. All that sunshine. Terrific combo. h/t Saul Griffith.
We could start by at least processing our own steel (we still process some, but not nearly as much as we used to). Newcastle Steelworks, just north of Sydney, was back in the day one of the biggest in the world, but it closed down in the 90s. Nowadays, we ship iron ore (our number 1 export) to China, and literally ship that same material back to Australia as steel. Insane!
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ripping open huge swaths of earth Do you have the same trepidation about aluminum, iron, dish soap, and table salt? I ask because the amount of "ripping open" involved in lithium production is like a speck in the eye of a whale compared to all the other mining. In terms of scale all existing and proposed lithium mines are teensy tiny by the standards of mines.
Sure, yes I do wish that we weren't opening such huge holes as we are for aluminum, iron, coal, etc. I worked in the upstream oil industry for a bit and live in an area heavily coal mined, I just wasn't clear how lithium mining compared and didn't want to assume that damage was on the same scale as the others.
It's not even close to as large as the footprint of oil and gas. The Thacker Pass project, which is one of several that are all individually described as satisfying global demand, will ultimately disturb only 7000 acres. Fossil fuel wells usually disturb 5 net acres each, and there are five million such wells in America alone.
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#139Well I guess this is a good win for short term energy infrastructure, though I'm always pretty torn when its at the cost of ripping open huge swaths of earth to get at the raw material. It is interesting to see how much of this data could be modelled based on wastewater brines from other industries in the area, assuming we go on to mine the lithium it will say a lot if the ML predictions prove accurate. One thing I c…
You physically can't remove the overburden for this. The Smackover is at a depth of multiple kilometers in most of these areas. It's mining brine. I.e. the "mines" are basically deep water wells. The limestone itself doesn't have any lithium. It's the water in the pores in the limestone that is relatively concentrated in lithium. In most of these cases, you're already producing brines from the smackover formation as…
I think they're using better processes than evaporation these days. For example, concentrating the brine using reverse osmosis first.
Re: USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas
#140Will never happen, because, you know... The environment... People in the U.S. would rather be slaves to China than be self sufficient as we once were...
at what point in history was the US ever anything approaching "self sufficient"? did I miss the american juche autarky period in history class?