The Salton Sea attracted the cream of Hollywood in the 1950s before succumbing to oblivion.
Now, huge reserves of lithium in its bowels revive the hopes of communities residing around California’s largest lake.
“This is definitely the largest lithium reserve identified in the United States,” says Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) COO Jim Turner, pointing to the horizon of the so-called “Lithium Valley”.
For now, the Australian company has only one huge drilling rig going into the ground, where it designs a geothermal plant and a lithium plant. Coveted for the manufacture of batteries, this metal is a key component in the transition to renewable energy.
Turner promises by 2024 the annual extraction of 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide, enough to assemble about 400,000 Tesla vehicles.
“In 2021, around 500,000 tons of lithium were produced, and demand will likely end with more than 400,000,” says Juan Carlos Zuleta, an analyst specializing in the metal.
With demand for the metal doubling this decade for making batteries, Zuleta estimates the supply shortfall will drive up the price of lithium even further.
In 2021 alone, the price of lithium hydroxide – currently valued at more than $25,000 a ton – has increased by more than 250%.
Rich in geothermal activity, the Salton Lake region could be impacted by this boom. Today desert and impoverished, this area has known other scenarios.
– Riviera de Salton –
The Salton Sea was formed in 1905, when the Colorado River overflowed, flooding this depression and creating a lake of more than 800 km2.
In the decades that followed, cities like Salton City and Bombay Beach flourished, with tourists arriving to swim, fish and sail. But another flood swept through them in the 1970s.
With no outlet, or sources of clean water in recent years, the lake is shrinking and concentrating huge levels of salinity. It also accumulates large amounts of chemical residues from crops.
These chemicals are exposed on the shores as the lake dries up and are blown into communities, becoming a health threat that already causes a high incidence of asthma.
Of Salton’s Riviera, a tourist promise that threatened to dethrone neighboring Palm Springs, only signs and corroded buildings remain.
Salton City is wasting away, as is the lake where no one swims or fishes anymore. With 15.5% unemployment, the county has one of the worst rates in the country.
“We need things here. You’re in the poorest county in the state of California,” says Ernie Hawkins, owner of the Ski Inn bar in nearby Bombay Beach.
The community of about 300 people began to attract artists for their apocalyptic landscapes.
Covered floor-to-ceiling in one-dollar bills that have never been counted, the Ski Inn is surviving, even the pandemic, says Hawkins, 79. He thinks lithium can help even more.
A few kilometers to the north, in Calipatria, there is, however, skepticism about how the community could benefit from this possible new moment.
“We’ve heard that there will be more jobs, that other factories will open, but we haven’t seen anything change. We have to wait,” says Juan González, an employee at a rubber factory, almost the only business operating in the city.
– “Infinite Possibilities” –
From one of its shores, covered in small remains of crustaceans, Lake Salton seems endless. It doesn’t smell bad, but it doesn’t always, say Charlie Diamond and Caroline Hung of the biogeochemistry lab at the University of California, Riverside.
In their small inflatable raft, the researchers, alone in this area, periodically measure the conditions of the water.
Diamond sees “a unique opportunity” in lithium’s promise.
“It depends [do diálogo entre] the community and the plants, if this will be a postcard of success in the development of alternative energies, or if it will become another chapter in the long history of this region that has been left behind economically”, he adds.
For Hung, it is also important to consider the opinion of residents and the environmental impact.
“[Os operadores da usina] They have to think a lot about what will happen if the water continues to recede, and they continue to expand,” he warned.
Turner says the CTR technology – never used commercially – has less of an environmental impact than the mining and evaporation techniques used at scale in lithium production.
The company plans to have the plant in which the lithium brine will be extracted run on geothermal energy. After its extraction, the brine will be reinserted underground, ensuring a cyclical process with less environmental impact.
Turner believes this exploration will position the United States – which mines lithium only in Nevada – as a global competitor in this market dominated by countries like Australia and Chile.
Turner’s enthusiasm is contagious to some on the tranquil shores of the Salton Sea.
“I’m going to put a power station for cars here,” says Hawkins, also excited, gesturing outside his bar.
“Once you start, the possibilities are endless. Who knows, maybe I’m a dreamer,” he added.
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