The Spirit of Fracking Comes to US Lithium Mining
A potential breakthrough in direct extraction of the battery metal in the US could disrupt the current ecosystem centered on China, Australia and South America.
Brine pools at a lithium mine in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg
“Fracking” is an expletive in environmental circles. Yet the spirit of shale is creeping into a business with transformational potential for the energy transition. Schlumberger NV, the industrial giant best known for sucking oil and gas from shale, the seabed (and other places besides), this week announced a breakthrough in direct lithium extraction, or DLE.
Lithium is the essential metal in the batteries that power electric vehicles and store energy on the grid, both pillars of decarbonization. Roughly a third of current production involves pumping lithium-rich brines into giant pools and using natural evaporation to leave concentrated salts. This method, exemplified by giant ponds in the Atacama desert in South America, is cheaper than the other main method, mining (the sun provides free energy for one thing). But it needs a lot of land and water — often in places where fresh supplies are scarce — and is slow. Plus, evaporation typically captures only about 40%-60% of the lithium present in the brine, whereas mining recovers more like 70%.