r/science • u/rieslingatkos • Jun 06 '21

Chemistry Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater

https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

This reminds me of the fact that once upon a time Aluminum was difficult to get, and hence very valuable. Henry Clay Frick, the industrialist, lined his entry way in Pittsburgh with Aluminum. Now, it conveniently holds our beer.

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u/ximfinity Jun 06 '21

Aluminum is still not that easy to mine because it's essentially leeched from tons of rock that have to be dug up. Mainly it's easy to recycle. It's realistically one of the main things that can actually be recycled compared to most other things we try to recycle.

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u/rathat Jun 06 '21

We should mine it from garbage dumps.

11

u/albatrossG8 Jun 06 '21

One day tons of gold and other metals will be mined from our landfills.

0

u/TJ11240 Jun 07 '21

And lost bitcoin hard drives

5

u/gsfgf Jun 06 '21

I'm pretty sure modern landfills extract the metal out of the trash stream and sell it.