From The Verge: General Motors has struck a deal with a mining company to source lithium, a key ingredient in electric-car batteries, from geothermal deposits in the US. The automaker is making a “multi-million dollar” investment in Australia’s Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) to bolster the mining firm’s efforts to extract lithium from California’s Salton Sea Geothermal Field.
It’s a risky bet by GM, given that there is no full-scale lithium production in the US from geothermal wells. Most of the world’s lithium comes from two places: lithium brine deposits in South America’s “lithium triangle” of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia; and hard-rock deposits in Australia. But its a sign that GM is trying to think holistically about the challenge of becoming an EV-only company by 2035.
CTR’s “direct extraction” process will have a “very small physical footprint” that produces very few carbon emissions, said Tim Grewe, general director electrification strategy and cell engineering at GM. Electric vehicle batteries can use lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, but the industry typically talks of lithium carbonate equivalent, which contains both.
“Lithium is a crucial metal to make these affordable high mileage electric vehicles in our future,” Grewe said. “We’re gonna have the first rights for the lithium produced out of this project.”
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