Sharjah24 – AFP: The turquoise glimmer of open-air pools contrasts sharply with the dazzling white of salt flats in Latin America's "lithium triangle”, as the demand has exploded for lithium, the "white gold" found in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, where hope resides for a better life fueled by a metal bonanza, which is considered a key component of batteries used in electric cars, as it is used in the manufacture of electric car batteries, which are pinned the hopes of saving the planet from global warming.
Commenting on this, Corrado Tore, hydrogeologist at Chilean lithium mining company SQM pointed out, "The lithium is dissolved in liquid. So, the most natural way to extract it and transform it into a final product is through an evaporation process, where the lithium-rich brine is pumped from underground and put into these pools for water to evaporate (leaving deposits of lithium, ed)."
Andrea Vallejo, head of lithium hydroxide production at Chilean lithium mining company SQM added, "In this plant, we receive brine from the Atacama salt flat and process it again. It goes through different stages where we purify it, remove magnesium and calcium, and then it goes through chemical reactions where we produce lithium carbonate."
Cecilia Erazo, lithium packaging shift manager at Chilean lithium mining company SQM said, "We package lithium battery supplies that have a longer shelf life than what we currently have on the market and that ultimately go to manufacturers."
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