
MOJAVE — For nearly a hundred years, borates have been mined at Boron, first underground and now in the state’s largest open-pit mine. The mine and associated refining facilities are an easily spotted landmark along Highway 58.
Those valuable borate deposits are perhaps most widely known for producing 20 Mule Team Borax cleaner, although they are used in a wide array of products from ceramics to fertilizer, insulation to computer screens.
The Boron mine contains one of the richest borate deposits in the world and supplies 30% of the world’s borates, according to mine owner Rio Tinto.
Now, however, what had previously been considered waste from the mine may turn out to be another valuable product: lithium.
Lithium has become valuable in recent years for its use in batteries, especially those for electric cars. It has become valuable enough for Rio Tinto to look at how its own deposits of the metal may be used, Amanda Smith, general manager at the Boron mine, said during a recent presentation to the Mojave Chamber of Commerce.
“As we see more and more electric cars coming on, lithium becomes more and more the scarce resource for us, particularly in the U.S.,” she said.
The lithium carbonate deposits within the mining waste at Boron have long been known, but there wasn’t the market for it previously to make it worthwhile to extract.
“We have nearly 100 years of waste material that we’ve already mined, we’ve already spent the money to get it out of the ground,” Smith said.
Last year, Rio Tinto worked to see if it was technically feasible to remove the lithium from the waste to be usable, with successful results.
Now, the company is building a demonstration plant to prove the process can be done economically, making it a viable product for the mine, she said.
That demonstration plant should be ready to operate later this spring and will likely take about three to six months to prove the process.
“The lithium market is tricky these days,” Smith said, with the price falling roughly in half since the company began its testing process last year.
However, the benefit is creating a key mineral for the future without additional mining, she said.
Should the process prove to be economically feasible, the new product may extend the life of the Boron mine and associated plant beyond the forecast 2040-plus date for the borate mining operations.
“Lithium really does unlock some doors for our future,” Smith said.
The mine employs some 700 people, and is one of Kern County’s largest taxpayers.
https://www.avpress.com/news/boron-mine-waste-may-yield-lithium/article_a16a4072-5de8-11ea-8f00-9fb023b5e0f4.html
2020-03-04 12:00:00Z
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