> California Energy Commission’s estimate that the Salton Sea area could produce 600,000 tons of lithium per year, which is amazing since the entire world’s industry produced a mere 85,000 tons of lithium in all of 2019.
Given that Li(2)CO(3) is the molecular structure of lithium carbonate and 14:12:48 is the molar mass ratio. Therefore there is no more than 1/5 of that in actual lithium so about 120,000 tones.
Still larger than today's world consumption but not as unrelastically high I guess.
[1] https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/05/geothermal-brines-coul...
Production capacity equals demand, roughly. That should not be surprising as production capacity costs money and you don't invest in more production capacity than you have demand. Proven reserves ALSO are some fairly low multiple of demand, for related reasons.
It's why LFP chemistry is so important. If that can handle mainstream use cases (commuter cars, medium range busses/trucking, etc) then BEV scaling to the entire economy becomes a lot more feasible.
https://investingnews.com/company-profiles/controlled-therma...
Hell’s Kitchen is expected to have a minimum 30 year life. Stage 1 of production is slated to begin in 2023, with a 20,000 tonnes per annum lithium hydroxide facility along with the generation of 49.9 megawatts of renewable energy from the integrated geothermal power plant.
There has never been a single geothermal lithium project that was actually successful.
Assuming the estimates are somewhat reliable at their projected annual draw it is 30 years worth. It is also to be noted that neither is the annual global demand close to that yet nor is the technology mature enough to extract that quantum yet so probably 50-60 years actual life time of the field which is not atypical for fields for other resources.
Also estimate is fore 600,000 tones of lithium carbonate not pure lithium.
[1] https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/05/geothermal-brines-coul...
https://investingnews.com/company-profiles/controlled-therma...
Controlled Thermal Resources anticipates commencement of commercial production at Hell’s Kitchen in 2023. The production of geothermal power at Hell’s Kitchen provides CTR the ability to participate in California’s growing renewable energy market. In January 2020, CTR announced it had entered into a 25 year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the largest irrigation district in North America and the sixth-largest electrical utility in California.
With the assistance of its project engineering partner Hatch Ltd., Controlled Thermal Resources completed its Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) Technical Report, and the accompanying Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). CTR has initiated a Prefeasibility Study (PFS) and commenced well pad construction in anticipation of drilling its first two geothermal wells.