Why does Bill Gates want to tear up the California Dead Sea?

One of the world's top billionaires is planningto develop a new startup and begin to actively develop lithium mines in Lake Salton - the “Dead Sea” of the US state of California. Due to the fact that today lithium is needed to create batteries, materials for aviation and space technology, as well as used in nuclear energy, a new venture by an American entrepreneur can become an unprecedented source of income for Gates himself and a very reliable lithium resource for the rest of the population of our planet , reports the portal popularmechanics.com.

Bill Gates plans to develop lithium

Lithium - light and soft silver-white metal.

Bill gates started financing startups

Hardly one of the richest and most recognizable peoplethe planet - Bill Gates - left the post of director of Microsoft, he immediately decided to start new projects. In particular, the billionaire liked a small startup to develop lithium in one of the salt lakes in southern California. So, the founder of the company, David Snydaker, was quite surprised to receive $ 20 million in financing from a venture company specializing in energy, with the participation of investors such as Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates.

In the near future, lithium may no longer be used in the production of batteries, because scientists are developing new types of power sources.

Although the idea of ​​starting lithium projects onLake Salton came to businessmen earlier, entrepreneurs did not dare to approach the geothermal zone of the lake due to a number of unsuccessful attempts to extract alkali metal in the region. Be that as it may, it was Sneidaker who managed to create a new technology capable of working with salt waters of different concentrations and their mixtures.

Being dissolved in salt water sourceswater around the world, lithium is often extracted "the old fashioned way" - in a similar way to obtain sea salt. So, in the huge evaporating ponds formed after leaving the region of the sea, there remains a solid substance, which entrepreneurs dig up. Although this technique remains effective many hundreds of years after its invention, production rates in this case leave much to be desired.

Salton Lake - California's “Dead Sea” containing huge lithium reserves

The salty “sea” is already rapidly evaporatingnatural reasons, and lithium salt continues to flow into Salton, and every year its amount only increases. The salt content in this place is so great that there is almost no life in the lake, indirectly making it an ideal platform for lithium mining or any other invasive technical project.

In addition to salt, in the area closest to the lakeThere are several mud volcanoes that are one of the richest potential sources of geothermal energy in the world. When dissolved in an overheated mixture, local lithium can have unique properties, which attracted David Sneidaker to develop the deposit under the leadership of the well-known Australian company Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR).

Mud volcanoes are considered excellent heat sources.

Snydaker technology is modularlithium mining, in which hydrochloric acid gradually knocks out lithium chloride from natural lithium carbonate contained in brine. The author of the development claims that his way of mining can be much faster and more efficient than traditional evaporation methods. It is reported that the company's ambitious plans until 2023 include the production of more than 17,000 tons of lithium, which can contribute not only to the development of the local economy, but also to an increase in the technological level of enterprises around the world.

We previously wrote that lithium-oxygennew generation batteries will be able to hold the battery many times longer than their modern counterparts, which can lead to the creation of smartphones with perpetual charge and electric vehicles with the rare need for recharging. You can read about these and other future prospects in this article.