salars in Mexico28 Jun 2017 22:04
For decades, commercial lithium production relied upon mineral ore sources such as spodumene, petalite and lepidolite. Extracting lithium from such sources, however, is significantly more costly than extracting the metal from lithium-containing brines. In fact, it is estimated that the cost of extracting lithium from hard rock is double that of producing from brines, explaining why most such sources have been priced out of the market over the past 20 years.
Salar brines can be described as underground reservoirs that contain high concentrations of dissolved salts, such as lithium, potassium, and sodium. These are generally found below the surface of dried lakebeds, known as salars.