The ocean is the biggest practical source but desalination is expensive. They don't really mine it, they use desert floors where old salt water dried up. Lithium is a salt in saltwater so they don't really need to dig much. But in the ocean it's like 0.2%. In salt flats it's like 1%. In recycling it's almost 100%
lukefive t1_jeet9f5 wrote
Reply to comment by skedeebs in Inexpensive and environmentally friendly mechanochemical recycling process recovers 70% of lithium from batteries by chrisdh79
The ocean is the biggest practical source but desalination is expensive. They don't really mine it, they use desert floors where old salt water dried up. Lithium is a salt in saltwater so they don't really need to dig much. But in the ocean it's like 0.2%. In salt flats it's like 1%. In recycling it's almost 100%