In California, the promise of lithium rekindles hopes in the Salton Sea

The Salton Sea attracted the cream of Hollywood in the 1950s, before succumbing to oblivion. Now huge reserves of lithium in its entrails they rekindle the hopes of the communities that reside around the greater lake of California.

“This is definitely the largest lithium reserve identified in the United States,” says Jim Turner, COO of Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR), pointing to the horizon of the so-called “Lithium Valley.”

For now, the Australian firm only has a huge drill drilling the ground where they project a geothermal plant and a lithium plant, a coveted metal for the manufacture of batteries, a key component for the transition to renewable energy.

But Turner promises by 2024 the annual extraction of 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide, enough to assemble about 400,000 Tesla vehicles.

“In 2021, some 500,000 tons of lithium were produced and the demand possibly closed with more than 400,000,” explains Juan Carlos Zuleta, an analyst specializing in the metal.

With demand for the metal doubling in this decade for the manufacture of batteries, Zuleta estimates that the supply deficit will further drive the price of lithium.

In 2021 alone, the price of lithium hydroxide – currently valued at more than US $ 25,000 a ton – increased more than 250%.

Rich in geothermal activity, the Lake Salton region may be impacted by this boom. However, this impoverished desert area has seen other mirages.

The Salton Riviera

The Salton Sea formed in 1905, when the Colorado River overflowed, flooding this depression and creating a lake of more than 800 km2.

In the decades that followed, cities like Salton City and Bombay Beach flourished, with tourists coming to swim, fish, and sail. But another flood washed away them in the 1970s.

With no outlet or sources of clean water in recent years, the lake has been declining and concentrating enormous levels of salinity.

It also accumulates high amounts of chemical residues from crops.

These chemicals are exposed on the shores as the lake dries up and are blown into the communities by the wind, becoming a health threat that already causes a high incidence of asthma.

Of the Salton Riviera, a tourist promise that threatened to dethrone nearby Palm Springs, only signs and corroded buildings remain. Salton City languishes, as is the lake in which no one else swims or fishes.

With 15.5% unemployment, Imperial County has one of the worst rates in the country.

“We need things here. You’re in the poorest county in the state of California, ”says Ernie Hawkins, owner of the Ski Inn bar in neighboring Bombay Beach.

The community of about 300 inhabitants began to attract artists for its apocalyptic landscapes.

The Ski Inn, covered from floor to ceiling in dollar bills that have never been counted, even survives the pandemic, says 79-year-old Hawkins. He believes lithium could help even more.

But a few miles north, in Calipatria, there is skepticism about how the community could benefit.

“We heard that there will be more jobs, that other plants will open, but we did not see anything change. It’s time to wait, ”says Juan González, an employee of a rubber plant, almost the only business operating in the city.

“Infinite possibilities”

From one of its shores, covered with small remains of crustaceans, the Salton Sea looks endless. It doesn’t smell bad, but it’s not always the case, say Charlie Diamond and Caroline Hung of the biogeochemistry lab at the University of California, Riverside.

In their small inflatable boat, the researchers, lonely in this area, periodically measure the water conditions. Diamond sees “a unique opportunity” in the promise of lithium.

“It depends [del diálogo entre] the community and the plants that this is a postcard of success in the development of alternative energies, or that it becomes another chapter in the long history of this region that has been economically neglected ”.

For Hung it is also important to consider the opinion of residents, the environmental impact: “[Los operadores de las plantas] They have to really think about what will happen if the water keeps receding, and they keep expanding. “

Turner says CTR technology – never used commercially – has less environmental impact than mining and evaporation techniques, used at scale in lithium production.

The company plans that the plant in which the lithium brine will be extracted will run on geothermal energy.

After its extraction, the brine will be reinserted into the subsoil, guaranteeing a cyclical process with less environmental impact.

Turner believes that this exploitation will position the United States – which only extracts lithium in Nevada – as a global competitor in this market dominated by countries such as Australia and Chile.

Turner’s enthusiasm is contagious to some on the quiet shores of the Salton Sea.

“I’m going to put up a car power station here,” says Hawkins, pointing in front of his bar. “Once it starts, the possibilities will be endless. Who knows, maybe I am a dreamer ”.