<story><title>Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater</title><url>https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nimbius</author><text>From the perspective of a diesel engine tech, this is a controversial opinion, but I&amp;#x27;m absolutely glad to see this breakthrough.&lt;p&gt;Lithium is a conflict resource.  its scarce, its hard to mine, and as a result so far electric cars are a fanciful plaything for what i would consider &amp;quot;the rich.&amp;quot;  This paves the way for electric cars that a working class mom and dad can afford to get to and from work and the store.  and of course electric trucks that have obscene amounts of torque means never &amp;quot;getting stuck&amp;quot; behind a slow truck ever again. it also means cleaner cities and hopefully cheaper trucking for over the road drivers and owner&amp;#x2F;operators.&lt;p&gt;Ive told my coworkers and apprentices this for as long as i can remember:  expect to service elecric long-haul trucks in your lifetime.  Learn the powertrain, the dynamics, the performance characteristics and keep pace with the technology as it evolves.  Make it part of your expectation in the future, because the economic model of diesel is a last-ditch effort at best in the 21st century.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Dumblydorr</author><text>How is lithium a conflict mineral? 51k tons mined in Australia, then the other top 3 countries are Argentina 16k, Chile and china 8k.&lt;p&gt;If you want to speak of conflict minerals for EVs, cobalt is WAY more problematic, since it is far more rare and mined mostly in the DRC, where we know child labor and starvation pay is given for the work that allows EV cathodes their precious Co.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.volkswagenag.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;stories&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;lithium-mining-what-you-should-know-about-the-contentious-issue.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.volkswagenag.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;stories&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;lithium...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater</title><url>https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nimbius</author><text>From the perspective of a diesel engine tech, this is a controversial opinion, but I&amp;#x27;m absolutely glad to see this breakthrough.&lt;p&gt;Lithium is a conflict resource.  its scarce, its hard to mine, and as a result so far electric cars are a fanciful plaything for what i would consider &amp;quot;the rich.&amp;quot;  This paves the way for electric cars that a working class mom and dad can afford to get to and from work and the store.  and of course electric trucks that have obscene amounts of torque means never &amp;quot;getting stuck&amp;quot; behind a slow truck ever again. it also means cleaner cities and hopefully cheaper trucking for over the road drivers and owner&amp;#x2F;operators.&lt;p&gt;Ive told my coworkers and apprentices this for as long as i can remember:  expect to service elecric long-haul trucks in your lifetime.  Learn the powertrain, the dynamics, the performance characteristics and keep pace with the technology as it evolves.  Make it part of your expectation in the future, because the economic model of diesel is a last-ditch effort at best in the 21st century.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>coding123</author><text>Just throwing this out there, but a lot of working class contractor type drive a RAM&amp;#x2F;Ford&amp;#x2F;Chevy 1 ton class diesel trucks with mega cab that typically runs in the neighborhood of 50-70k, so these people WILL transition to electric. I already know republican types in rural areas that even want to get the Cybertruck (even if it means looking like one of those rich types).</text></comment>