And then it just got me thinking about batteries and battery technology and energy and how we store that energy." On her return to Calgary, the accomplished geophysicist began looking into a better, greener way to mine lithium — the essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, which power electric cars and smartphones. It's completely different from the way lithium is traditionally mined. "I really dug into the history of of lithium mining and where it started and how we do it today, and I realized it hadn't changed in 30 years," Hall said. How it worksLithium is usually mined through hard rock mining — where the rocks are ground up and dissolved — or through brine mining, which is similar to drilling a well.

Source: CBC News February 20, 2021 02:15 UTC