16 Comments

Very good piece. Very interesting.

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Another great story, Jane. Gotta find some way to co-exist!

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Jane, I just saw a lecture from a geologist that is a prospector for Lithium for a mining company, LithiumAmericas. She was giving a talk to an auditorium and online audience from Central Washington University where my favorite geology professor teaches. LithiumAmericas (LA) is building a lithium mine in northern NV that contains 640 million tons of lithium, compared to the 25 million tons mentioned in your story. Of course, it doesn't have the NASA conflict. But I thought you might find it interesting, or maybe you'd want to do another story on Lithium. Here's the link to the video, if you're interested. And if you do get up that way, you could also go to Jarbidge, NV, the most remote town in the lower 48, another interesting story. Be well. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inq_ypJeiZk&t=3080s

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Yes I’ve seen the stories. (There may be some tribal conflicts.) One big difference between this mine and the one I profiled is this one will try to extract lithium from clay as opposed to brine. Could be more expensive. But this find is HUGE.

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Here the thing about actual journalism. A reputable reporter goes out and gets the story and then reports the real news back to us. Wild speculation can be injected but it’s mostly fixed opinion and confirmation bias. This is a real story and will have an ending that will probably make some people very rich- at this point we don’t know which people.

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Sounds like King Solomon is needed to decide who this baby of land belongs too. The land supports America's National security interest whether it is mined for lithium or used as a calibration facility for optical satellites.

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I am guessing when push comes to shove the land will stay unmined if the defense department uses the land to calibrate their satellites.

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While you're in Nevada, look up and visit Jarbidge, NV. It's the most remote town in the US (well, the lower 48). I was just there, because it was there and I had to see it. The last stagecoach robbery in the US happened there in 1916. It's an interesting place. I think you'd enjoy it.

Oh, speaking of Tonopah...............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNqv85coyTw

(being from CA, you probably know about this already). ;)

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I missed Jarbidge, but who knows? I’ll probably end up back in the middle of nowhere again and will have to stop by.

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Linda Ronstadt version is much better! đŸ˜‰ but a great song by anyone.

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Yes, her and Lowell were buddies and she sang several songs that he wrote.

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I'm just simply not sold on the "green energy" movement. The absurdity of "climate change," etc. is just that--absurdity, and finally, at least, more people are starting to realize this. Electric vehicles--particularly the current crop of them with lithium batteries, are not the future. They don't work that well--they aren't very good at being "environmental" (define that term for yourself) due to the mining that needs to happen, and most importantly, gasoline is quite viable, quite a bit cheaper--and cleaner (especially the way we do it here in the U.S.) to produce. In other words--let's get back to market economics and not false markets decided upon by politically captured corporate interests.

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