Depending on how profitable the process ends up being, it could also help drive geothermal energy development by the Salton Sea
Simbol Materials will soon start construction on a large-scale lithium plant in Calipatria, which the company says will employ 400 people during an 18-month construction period and between 120 and 150 people once finished. Many of those high-wage jobs could go to residents of the Imperial Valley, one of the state’s most impoverished areas.
The Pleasanton-based company has spent a year and a half demonstrating its innovative — and top-secret — process for extracting lithium from geothermal brine, a leftover of geothermal energy production from the John L. Featherstone geothermal power plant by the southern shore of the Salton Sea. Lithium is a key ingredient in the batteries used by many electric automakers, and the prospect of abundant lithium — which is now largely produced overseas — caught Tesla’s attention last year.
Until Simbol starts consistently producing large quantities of battery-grade lithium, no one will know for sure that its extraction process works as advertised. But depending on how profitable the process ends up being, it could also help drive geothermal energy development by the Salton Sea, which has ground to a halt in recent years.
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