A plan to extract lithium, a shiny white metal used in electric car batteries, in southeastern Utah is raising concerns in the arid American West about how the project would affect Colorado River water. It increases some anxiety.
The Australian company and its U.S. subsidiary are analyzing salt water in a region called the Paradox Basin, a geological formation that spans Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The area’s groundwater is rich in lithium salts and other minerals from its time as an ocean basin that repeatedly flooded and drained millions of years ago.
The company also has freshwater rights from the nearby Green River, raising questions about how groundwater and river water are related and what impact its lithium production plans will have on the environment. It is occurring. The Green River is a tributary of the Colorado River and is the water powerhouse of the West, on which 40 million people depend.
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“We need a transition to renewables and energy, but maybe we shouldn’t be looking for quick-fix energy solutions like this for drought-stricken rivers,” said Green River, Utah resident. Lauren Wood III says: A town of 900 people near the site Anson Resources is considering.
Many minerals are mined in open pits. But this involves using chemicals to separate the lithium from salt water, which could be faster and less destructive to the environment than traditional drilling, blasting and mining.
The project is one small part of a global increase in lithium production to store clean wind and solar energy and make batteries to power electric vehicles. Alternative batteries that don’t rely on lithium are being tested, but for now lithium is still used in most electric vehicle and grid batteries.
Gayna Salinas stands on the banks of the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River, on January 25, 2024 in Green River, Utah. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)
Anson says the extraction process, which has not been used on a large scale in the U.S., would be low-carbon and “environmentally responsible,” a claim that allays the concerns of some environmentalists and residents. isn’t it.
Dr. Anson has been using old oil wells to investigate the amount of lithium in brine, a salty liquid deep underground.
The company says the brine initially contains enough metal to produce 10,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year. That’s enough to supply about 200,000 battery packs for the average electric vehicle in the United States.
They say natural pressure pushes the liquid upwards from a depth of more than a mile. Absorbents then separate the lithium before the lithium-free water is pumped back underground. Freshwater from the Colorado River is used to clean minerals. Anson said almost all of this fresh water will be recycled and used again.
“We recognize how precious water is in arid environments,” Anson CEO Bruce Richardson said in a statement. “The lithium we are extracting will be used in electric vehicles, and the whole point of electric vehicles is to reduce the environmental impact.”
But geologists and geoscientists, including Michael McKibben, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, said it was unclear how water-intensive direct lithium extraction would actually be.
“This technology is too new and has little established commercial track record,” he said.
It has been implemented in several projects in Argentina and China’s Qinghai province.
So far, Anson has acquired water rights to 2,500 acre-feet from the Green River. An acre-foot is enough water to water her two or three households in the United States for one year. The company said it doesn’t actually use that much, but didn’t elaborate further.
The company said in a statement that salt water and fresh water are not the same because salt water is not potable and cannot be used for any other purpose. It also said that the salt water identified in the Paradox Basin is separated from freshwater aquifers by more than a mile of “thick layers of impermeable salt beds and sandstone units.”
But last year, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management expressed concerns about Anson’s plan to pump 13,755 acre-feet of groundwater annually near the Green River. Department officials said the aquifer and river are interconnected and that Anson and its U.S. subsidiary did not adequately explain how groundwater withdrawals would affect the Green River.
Utah’s Water Rights Division will make the final decision on water permits, which could take months or even years.
Several other companies are considering direct lithium extraction projects in the U.S. Last year, ExxonMobil acquired rights to the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas, considered one of the most promising lithium resources in North America. In Nevada, Century Lithium is piloting a project in Amargosa Valley, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Despite growing government and industry interest in acquiring more lithium in the U.S., Nevada is currently home to the nation’s only lithium mine. Australia, Chile, China and Argentina produce almost all of it.
Green River Mayor Len Hutt said the town’s limited economic base makes it difficult for Anson to work, even though some residents like Guyna Salinas are skeptical and concerned about its proximity to town. He said there was pressure to accept the project.
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“In a community like Green River, it’s hard to say no to anything,” he says.
Mr. Salinas, whose family farms in rural areas, said he was skeptical that projects like Mr. Anson’s would have economic benefits in good times or bad. She cited uranium mines in the area and decades of oil and gas drilling that are no longer functioning.
“Everyone seems to want to use rural America as a dumping ground, but I don’t think people really care because rural America needs money and jobs.”
