The way this type of lithium mining works is relatively simple. The ancient brine is pumped out from under the salt crust, from brine wells located all over the Salar. It is channelled into gigantic ponds where the water is evaporated away. It is a slow process taking many months: first the sodium chloride precipitates, then the remaining brine is channelled into another big pond where the potassium salts precipitate, then into another evaporation pond where the magnesium salts are removed. Eventually, after well over a year, that brine that left the underground reservoir as a pale blue liquid
...more
