Kalistani Major History

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New Developments allow Kalistan to Extract Lithium from Brine"Wastewater" pools from Oil and Steel industry become gold mines for Kalistani Tech firms
High Bong, Neveras
May 7, 4442


What was deemed "waste" now is reclaimed as source of Lithium Salts

Kalistani chemical engineers have developed new techniques which will allow brine which was a wastewater product of pig iron production to be refined into a reliable source of lithium.

"Briney salars at the National Iron Refinery in High Bong has been tested to contain on average 2700 parts Lithium per million.  This makes the lithium commercially recoverable."  Dr. Frederick Gaston noted in a recent survey paper for the Geology department at Doceus Rex University in High Bong.  "Centuries of reuse of the same water in the production process combined with natural evaporation has concentrated the various metals and other basic elements in the water, making it a highly toxic soup, but now, with new technological developments, also a potentially lucrative source of lithium.  We can drain massive salt lakes that have formed in the immediate vicinity of the Iron Refinery operations into evaporators, and pull lithium out of the waters.  We anticipate that at current demands, we can supply more than 65 years worth of lithium.  The process will also allow us to extract magnesium, calcium, and potassium, as well as small amounts of precious and semi-precious metals like gold and zinc."

Extraction of the lithium from Brine solves one of the major bottlenecks in the growing high tech sector which is developing in Suldanor.  "We were asked to search for lithium in Kalistan," Dr. Gaston stated.  "My research team and I worked on the question, looking at mining surveys to see if there were any sources of spodumene in Kalistan.  We have no surveys which suggest the existence of the lithium rich mineral, so my graduate assistant, Jessica Vanderson, suggested that Lithium might be located in brine.  We tried sea water first, and while we can find tiny amounts of lithium in it, this led us to the salars in the Bong Valley.  And Eureka, as the saying goes." 

Brine evaporation and the use of modern membrane technology can also help engineers reuse the water from Oil extraction.  Dr. Gaston further reported: "The unfortunate biproduct of oil drilling on land is this heavy, salty water which comes up with the oil.  These are remnants of ancient seas.  Luckily, we haven't extracted hardly any of the oil we have on land, since oil extraction in the Strait is much more profitable, so, the oilfield brine could also provide a long term source of lithium."  Other potential sources, according to Gaston, are hectorite Clay deposits in Suldanor, though extraction will be significantly difficult and expensive than evaporation of the wastewater lakes in High Bong.

Several firms are currently launching pilot programs in High Bong to see how profitable lithium evaporation is.  One company in particular, Yoshimi Salts, seems particularly well positioned to make the most out of the waste water lakes.  This project, a joint venture between the Suldanor District Government and Sulari investors, was founded to sell sea salt to the Kalistani-Telemonese joint-venture natural grocer Greene's Grocers.  Their success has allowed them to diversify and build a salar-evaporation plant, which has received favorable comments recently and an infusion of capital from KALNAFERCO.  On the heels of the Gaston report, Yoshimi Salts rushed to the Bong Valley and set up their first commercial evaporators in February.  Yoshimi Salts has yet to turn a profit on the Lithium operation, but they do have the infrastructure in place for take off, should they deem the operation a money maker.  Three other companies are also planning on opening evaporation facilities in the region within the next six months.