Photo: The process uses an astounding amount of water, which is in short supply across Utah and the arid West. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
A company is ramping up to extract lithium near the Colorado River in Utah — and use a whole lot of water.
Australia-based Anson Resources says the water beneath southeastern Utah holds an abundant source of the mineral, which the nation needs as it becomes more dependent on lithium-powered batteries and moves toward a less fossil fuel-dependent future.
But opponents worry the already over-tapped Colorado River Basin has little water to spare. The extraction technology Anson plans to use has never been used at the scale proposed, and questions remain about how much water it will consume and deplete from the system.
“Water is limited on the Colorado River,” said John Weisheit, co-founder of Living Rivers, an environmental group focused on protecting the watershed. “This is so speculative I can’t stand it.”
…opponents worry the already over-tapped Colorado River Basin has little water to spare.
Anson has eyed Utah since at least 2017, after the company reviewed records for exploratory oil wells drilled in the 1960s. It found reports of lithium-rich brine in the Paradox Formation, the remanent of ancient evaporated seas that underlies much of the red rock Colorado Plateau.
The company plans to mine the material by drilling wells up to 9,000 feet deep. It will use a material developed by a Chinese company, Sunresin, that binds to lithium suspended in the brine. It then flushes the lithium free with fresh Colorado River water, according to information Anson CEO Bruce Richardson presented to Utah lawmakers last month. Wastewater will get injected back underground.
The process will produce 13,000 tons of lithium per year in its first phase, Richardson said. That’s about enough lithium to support […]
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