EvaporationPond

EV batteries are born in Chilean evaporation ponds

by 

Steve Dent

02.24.2019

Using Landsat data from the US Geological survey, NASA's Laren Dauphin recently imaged the Salar de Atacama in Chile. The enclosed basin is the world's largest source of lithium, producing 29 percent of the world's reserves. Much of it will wind up in rechargeable batteries used by EVs, laptops and smartphones, but how it gets there is surprising -- think salt production, not pit mines.