Bill to help mineral extraction
Earlier this week, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1074, the goal of which is to incentivize existing geothermal plants operating in disadvantaged communities by funding mineral extraction projects at those facilities.
The bill, which was authored by Sen. Ben Hueso, specifically expands the eligible uses of funds in the Geothermal Resources Development Account to include projects to recover lithium, metals, agricultural products and other beneficial minerals from highly mineralized geothermal brines at an existing geothermal facility that is in a disadvantaged community and has the potential to provide additional local employment opportunities.
“It is in our best interest to fund projects for mineral recovery from geothermal brines,” Hueso said. “The signing of this bill has the potential of putting the Salton Sea at the center of the map for companies which highly rely on lithium as part of their electric battery production. I am proud this project may help us reach our energy-efficiency and environmental goals and in turn create more jobs for our state.”
The geothermal brine produced by the Salton Sea geothermal resources is highly mineralized and corrosive which makes it a necessity to constantly remove them from its system. Extraction of these minerals from the brine is one of the most significant costs of the geothermal development in the Salton Sea.
The state has the potential to help commercialize domestic mineral mining from geothermal brine, which will produce lithium and manganese dioxide necessary for electric battery manufacturing, thereby transforming an economic cost into an economic benefit.
Lithium is used for all types of batteries that are used in cellphones, laptops and electric cars, with the rapid development of electric cars makes having the ability to extract lithium from existing geothermal could provide a big boost for the geothermal energy development in the area.
“It is in the state’s best interest to fund select projects for mineral extraction from geothermal brines,” said Hueso when the bill was passed on Sept. 1. “This has the potential of putting the Salton Sea at the center of the map for big companies like Tesla which rely on lithium as part of their electric battery production. More business means more jobs and this is great and exciting news for Imperial County.”
SB 1074 will allocate $2.5 million of the Federal Trust Funds for competitive grants for mineral recovery projects.
“I am signing this bill because lithium recovery may provide California with a domestic source to help meet our growing demand for electric vehicle batteries,” Brown said during a signage of the bill. “Moreover as we continue to work towards a sustainable Salton Sea, finding markets for geothermal brine can contribute to the combined efforts that will be needed for a healthy Sea.”
Under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, the federal government awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to California Energy Commission to administer a variety of innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. At the close of the ARRA program, in 2013, $13 million in funds remained unallocated and available to the CEC for energy-related projects. This bill provides CEC the authority to continue to use the remaining ARRA funds for additional, innovative energy-efficiency projects.
As of today mineral extraction technology isn’t available, but there is a vast amount of pilot projects that the geothermal industry is conducting.
The number of methods currently being tested on a pilot scale is vast. One of the most common methods involves filtration of the brine to separate the minerals. Another is using membrane into which the high-value materials would adhere to and magnetic extraction.
Although many of the pilot projects have shown a lot of promise, the development and full integration of the technology is not an easy task because in order to be successful, the method can’t be invasive with the existing structure and operation of the facilities.