Lithium is going to write the next chapter in Nevada’s rich mining history, according to experts.
The element, which is in abundance in the state, is vital to rechargeable batteries and promises to help mitigate the world’s need for fossil fuels, according to a UNLV News Center.
“We don’t have a choice but to find a way forward in extracting the necessary metals used in a variety of clean energy applications like lithium, cobalt and nickel,” Andrew Woods, director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, told UNLV News Center. “But we can’t solve one environmental problem by creating another for future generations to clean up.”
Researchers in economics and geology at the school are trying to bring together stakeholders in a way not possible a generation ago in an effort to avoid the potential catastrophes of climate change and carbon-induced global warming.
Woods is adamant that the capacity for energy storage will increase for electric vehicles, homeowners and businesses as the demand for clean energy rises.
“Over the next eight years, the demand for batteries is expected to increase five times. Human survival is now at stake, rather than just mitigating climate change,” he said, according to UNLV News Center.
The center published a white paper this year that details the state’s lithium resources and why Nevada is ideal for growing lithium-ion battery operations.
Among the lithium hotbeds are Esmeralda County’s Rhyolite Ridge, which grows Tiehm’s buckwheat and produces vast lithium resources, and a huge lithium deposit underneath Humboldt County’s Thacker Pass, near the Oregon border.
