SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Located in the 28-mile-long and 22-mile-wide McDermitt Caldera, the discovery of the deposit will be a massive boost to the United States' lithium reserves, which have been estimated at just one million metric tons. Most of the world's major deposits are in countries outside of North America, such as Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, China and Australia. It could also encourage more US investment in electric cars and will alleviate fears over lithium shortages – it's thought that a million metric tons of lithium will be needed by 2024.
"It could change the dynamics of lithium globally, in terms of price, security of supply and geopolitics," Belgian geologist Anouk Borst told Chemistry World. "The US would have its own supply of lithium and industries would be less scared about supply shortages."
The size of the deposit still has to be confirmed, but Lithium Americas Corporation says it expects to start mining the supply in 2026.
[...] Not everyone is celebrating the discovery, especially the Native American tribes who say the land is sacred. There are also potential dangers to native wildlife, and researchers are worried that the project will cause groundwater levels to drop to dangerous levels. Even NASA has spoken out against mining in the area. The space agency has been using Nevada's Railroad Valley lakebed since 1993 to accurately gauge the time it takes for satellite signals to travel to Earth and back, allowing it to calibrate the satellites.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @05:30PM (3 children)
Ah, southeast Oregon, far Norcal. I've never been able to find any proof but I've often thought that the secession movements in those areas might be funded by mining and/or timber interests. The SoJ one in particular--those guys had a lot of signs and were very organized until suddenly they weren't.
Studies on SoJ indicate it would have ended up being poorer than Mississippi if it were a state. The area in question is redder than ketchup, but lightly populated. Most local residents except for the Indians won't oppose this, but state governments might push back.
I also suspect that if corporate interests are involved they realized that secession wasn't necessary to accomplish their goals and might have just made things more complicated; especially if word got out it was their doing. You don't hear about it quite as much now, and they can probably get what they need greasing Federal palms just as easily.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 15 2023, @12:14PM (2 children)
Sounds like a single, rich individual as sponsor.
Why wouldn't they have concluded that in the first place and just skipped it? There's no reason to expect the state of Jefferson thing to go anywhere profitable, if you're mercenary and relatively objective. Nor were federal palms hard to grease in the past. Sounds more like a rich sponsor who died or withdrew their funding (personality conflicts, got bored with the hobby, etc).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2023, @10:26PM (1 child)
Look at the timing on this. Who went into and out of power indicates who the corps thought was bribable and who they thought wasn't.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 16 2023, @05:55AM
Here, there's nothing to gain or lose. It'll have no effect on the bribeabilty of California officials. They can't win so it's a money sink. And there's plenty of wealthy parties who could have kept the movement awash in fresh posters and advertising - one doesn't need secretive corporations to do it. It's just not that significant either the resources expended or the goals pursued.