Mining companies say they have a better way to get underground lithium, but skepticism remains
When Kelly Dunham heard that water was gushing out from a test well earlier this month for a proposed lithium mine in the middle of this rural city of 900 residents, she went to see it for herself. Water was surging from the drilling rig and flooding the test site as berms trapped it and directed the water toward lagoons once used by an abandoned missile launch complex nearby. Trucks sucked up the water with pumps and hauled it away to disposal wells as fast as they could. The drill had hit pockets of carbon dioxide gas and more water than expected, according to state regulators and Anson Resources, the company behind the direct lithium extraction (DLE) project in which brine is pumped from deep aquifers to the surface, where lithium and other minerals are extracted from the water before it is sent back underground.