Huge Reserve of Lithium Revealed in Bolivia.

Located under a vast salt flat called Salar de Uyun is a lake of brine. And contained in that brine, is lithium.

Now, one of the reason lithium batteries are so expensive, is that lithium is pretty rare, so this find is significant. It doubles the known amount of lithium.

Great hopes are being placed on batteries with this very light lithium at their core, much quicker to charge and discharge power (so they say) than heavy conventional batteries.

So if plug-in cars catch on, lithium may be one of the vital raw materials for the auto revolution.

And here in the Salar de Uyuni the experts think that the difficult and poverty-stricken country of Bolivia holds 50% of the world's total supplies of lithium, contained in these vast hidden lakes of brine.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Well, guess what.

15 August 2009
General Motors (GM) stepped up its commitment to green transport yesterday by announcing plans to open America's first commercial automaker-operated lithium battery manufacturing site.

www.energysavingtrust.org.uk...(energysavingtrust)/276316



Now, Lithium is a metal, atomic # 3, and Lithium is not found free in nature and makes up only 0.0007% of the earth's crust. (source)

Lithium alloys well with aluminium, copper, manganese, and cadmium and is used make strong, lightweight metals for aircraft, spacecraft, UFOS and who knows what else the mil/gov have.

But Google Lithium and the first thing that comes up is it's used as a drug.

Result #1

Lithium affects the flow of sodium through nerve and muscle cells in the body. Sodium affects excitation or mania.
...
Lithium may also be used for other purposes not listed

www.drugs.com...

Folks, Lithium is a metal. It is poisonous to our bodies. Now granted, they are giving extremely low doses, but over long periods of time, lifetime prescriptions.

And the effects are nasty.

* Neurologic effects of lithium toxicity include tremors, lethargy, confusion, seizures, and coma.
* GI effects of lithium toxicity include nausea, vomiting, crampy abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
* Mild-to-moderate lithium toxicity is characterized by tremor, weakness, and mild confusion.
* Moderate-to-severe lithium toxicity is characterized by altered mental status, muscle fasciculations, stupor, seizures, coma, hyperreflexia, and cardiovascular collapse.

emedicine.medscape.com...

Lithium is like a salt, but with all the side affects of metal poisoning.

Lithium comes from the Greek word Lithos.

Lithos in the bible means "stumbling stone" or just "stone" (source)

Meanwhile...

Twelve thousand feet (3,700m) up here in the high Andean plains of south western Bolivia, the subzero nights are bitingly cold, but the days are hot even in the middle of winter.

The unclouded sun is reflected upwards by the largest salt flats in the world, the Salar de Uyuni.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Well that is nice. Ever heard of bumper cars? Now you cannot tell me they cannot come up with a way to safely supply electricity to autos on the road.

Now plug in a nuke plant and you have near free transport. Happy they found some lithium and now Bolivia can become richer than Saudi but there are soo.... many ways we could get off oil right now it is ridicules.

X

Lithium may have nasty side effects when dosed too high in bipolar patients, but it is the most effective drug known for mania prevention. Scientists discovered that lithium treated bipolar disorder, when they found a town in Texas where none of the citizens were bipolar. The pharmaceutical industry extracts lithium from rocks, fyi.

People who take lithium must drink lots of water, and the dose must be titirated so that the blood level of lithium is high enough to work, but not so high that it is toxic. Patients must submit to occasional blood tests to monitor lithium levles.

It is amazing that such a simple, naturally occurring metal is so effective in preventing such a destructive disease. Bipolar patients complain of thirst, frequent urination, tremors and weight gain. Many patients discountinue their lithium because they enjoy and miss the manic phase of their illness, despite it's destructive nature on their lives.

reply to post by Udontknowme


Hopeful news for Bolivia, hopefully they can make a vast amount of money from that. They need to make sure they keep the rights and negotiate hard with the multi-national companies they will need to get in to mine and refine it.

Kool-Aid will outbid all others. Any questions?

The July issue of Discover magazine has an interesting article that covers this. Check it out here-
discovermagazine.com... metals.


[edit on 29 AMu10 09 by jameslewin]

Ah yes Lithium. Good find! S&F!

I think Lithium minerals in rocks out west are used as pocket warmers.
They emit more particles when hit by UV.
So the ionizing power of Lithium is great and good in batteries.
Its like a solar panel in your cell phone without the Sun.