The association of pyrite with lithium “was unknown,” said Shailee Bhattacharya, a sedimentary geochemist and PhD student working with Professor Shikha Sharma in the lab at West Virginia University in the US, in a statement. They will present their team’s findings in 2024. In General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).
Their study focused on 15 Middle Devonian sedimentary rock samples from the Appalachian Basin in the United States. The analyzes revealed that the pyrite minerals contained an unexpected amount of lithium, which was an unexpected result.
“I’m trying to understand how lithium and pyrite can be related to each other,” Bhattacharya said.
The unexpected discovery was made while investigating whether old industrial sites could be sources of lithium.
Pyrite shale has turned out to be a particularly good source of lithium, which could be great news for the battery revolution, but the team cautions against getting too excited just yet. This is because we do not yet know if the results are site-specific, meaning that pyrites elsewhere may not contain as much lithium as the samples analyzed in this study.
The discovery of potential new sources of lithium, also known as “white gold,” is big news as the world turns to battery production for a greener future. Lithium is highly reactive and can efficiently store and release electricity, but much more will be needed to achieve sustainable development plans.
“Currently, we produce about 100,000 tons annually [ličio], – explained Oxford University data scientist Hannah Ritchie – Does the world have enough lithium to switch to electric cars? It is predicted that by 2030 we will need 2.5 to 5 times more: 240,000 to 450,000 tons.”
In short, it seems that the problem is not so much the lack of lithium as our ability to produce it, so new potential sources like pyrite could be very good news. Even better, searching for “white gold” this way may even be the greenest solution.
Prepared by IFLScience.
