The 'white gold rush': Inside a lithium mine, where stores of recyclable energy lie | Nightline

The 'white gold rush': Inside a lithium mine, where stores of recyclable energy lie | Nightline

Lithium powers many of our devices as well as electric vehicles. Western states are believed to hold an immense amount of the metal and some say it could help the U.S. reach its climate goals.

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50 Comments

  1. Pete on June 17, 2022 at 4:13 pm

    "We just have to get the technology" says an American. How did we get to this point?

  2. Jason Lee on June 17, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    Yeah and all your drinking water gets contaminated

  3. Kormondre on June 17, 2022 at 4:17 pm

    The production process looks disgusting

  4. Oliseo Vazquez on June 17, 2022 at 4:19 pm

    Guess who ain’t getting lithium for free??🤣

  5. Amun Ra on June 17, 2022 at 4:19 pm

    Lithium carbonate is now going for $65,000 per ton. Kinda want to drive up to those pools with a couple of 5 gallon buckets and walk away with a quick $3,000 dollars.

  6. Joeziah Babb on June 17, 2022 at 4:21 pm

    its a goddamn flower…99% of every species that has existed on this planet has gone extinct and these people want to see the country fall behind economically to safe every damn plant, insect or whatever the hell their privileged life has led to believe is worth saving.

    Soft men create hard times….

  7. awsomenesscaleb on June 17, 2022 at 4:22 pm

    We need to destroy the earth’s crust to save the environment

  8. Moses Manaka on June 17, 2022 at 4:22 pm

    What’s up with the woke masks.

  9. rmarbertin8 on June 17, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    So "technically", that water _could_ be used for agriculture instead, if for some reason food and water becomes more important than e-vehicles, or perhaps de-desertification, for the carbon capturing benefits of good old fashioned plant plants.

  10. Martin Rios on June 17, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    Omg, americans are so decadent

  11. RG P on June 17, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    What happens when there isn’t enough water?

  12. frank sigwart on June 17, 2022 at 4:24 pm

    Move the plant

  13. mdb123 on June 17, 2022 at 4:24 pm

    Why not build a facility/warehouse and copy the habitat (actually take the soil from Silver Peak) and grow the plant there? Also at the facility harvest the seeds of that plant and store them there. Once the reclamation is done reseed the area with seeds. If that fails then at least the species will survive in the facility.

  14. Daniel Grwald Phone on June 17, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    Wonder if one could use those flowers as low cost lithium detectors? (Plant, watch survive and offspring.)

  15. Death Before Dishonor on June 17, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    This is this biggest lie I’ve ever seen. 🤣

  16. Michael DeRobio on June 17, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    Why are these people wearing masks outside?

  17. Ethan Mertins on June 17, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    A buckwheat flower 😐😐😐

  18. Victor Segovia Palacios on June 17, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    "Critical to fight climate change"
    What a retard

  19. Stephen Gill on June 17, 2022 at 4:29 pm

    The only way mining will happen on a grand scale is when the US workers receives a wage lower than China. It will never happen. The USA is China’s belt loop boy.

  20. meanuncledavid on June 17, 2022 at 4:31 pm

    I stoped watching once I saw they were wearing masks in the Nevada desert with just two people out there. Then the climate crisis lie started. Lame hippie propaganda. Thought it would be more educational.

  21. Sam Hendrix on June 17, 2022 at 4:32 pm

    Soon as terrorist figure out how to make the batteries in electric cars explode and cause major fatalities they will be bombs everywhere so the government can ban Lithium https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lithium+battery+explosion

  22. Louise Hoff on June 17, 2022 at 4:32 pm

    does the southwest need 4.6 million gallons of fresh clean water every day or a tesla they cannot afford? Thacker Pass has been thrown open to digging a deep pit mixing our water with acid so the rich can drive a fancy car. When the Quinn River gives out they will keep drawing from the aquifer.

  23. Quigley 1,000 yard smack on June 17, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    The electric car is probably equal damaging to this planet if not more. It really makes me sad how people are not understanding the science of this.

  24. Hantus77 on June 17, 2022 at 4:35 pm

    Hydrogen

  25. moonshinefuel on June 17, 2022 at 4:36 pm

    I don’t think this is the answer, the reason why is batteries don’t last, they go bad, so that’s a problem, you’ll never stop digging up the earth and destroying it. There are revolutionary breakthroughs by using simply, water, (hydrogen) emissions free and regenerative solar extraction processes. Why not utilize water, which is free from the sky, oceans, etc. And simply falls back down to earth again.

  26. Double Slit Photon on June 17, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    Wassup with the catwalk? a model turned into reporter or a reporter turned into a model?

  27. Ed Stallion on June 17, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    I’ll be packing my bags soon on my way to sunny Nevada.

  28. Michael Felder on June 17, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    The Boring Company has not Killed one endangered species and certainly not this precious plant @5:13
    To all you "professional" mining executives… Time to man up and hire a ProofRock from Elon and get this done by building a tunnel highway in the layers so rich in Lithium.
    Open pits and ponds are Old school and silly. They use, outdated machines and stick humans in them to drive in a slot car track.
    C’mon it’s 2022, ProofRock is real. It exists TODAY. Get it done.

  29. S R on June 17, 2022 at 4:41 pm

    touching underground aquifers is "not using otherwise unused water resources"? 😳

  30. Mary Thompson on June 17, 2022 at 4:44 pm

    You are not welcomed in Thacker Pass Nevada

  31. Jonathan c on June 17, 2022 at 4:47 pm

    its probably done in other countries because its cheaper there, and no one wants to destroy your own backyard.

  32. Dawn Baldwin on June 17, 2022 at 4:48 pm

    Lithium is a nessersery layer that the earth needs it works the same for our earth as it does on humanity. It really needs to go organic biofuels machines that fart that feed the plants. We should never destroy any of the earths nessersery elemental layers when our evolution depended on them. There us so much science that still needs to catch up with our biological spaceship. You could grow so many types of organic biofuel without damaging the earths evolution. This is a quick attempt to fix a long term issue. We can grow all these elemental layers if we take the time to feed the earth and grow matter. 💚

  33. azrios on June 17, 2022 at 4:50 pm

    Does that weed have a human health benefit?

  34. frank sigwart on June 17, 2022 at 4:50 pm

    If I could I would. But I won’t

  35. frank sigwart on June 17, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    Hahahaahjaj move the plant . 300 homes in Brevard country have destroyed the indigenous saw grass palmetto in just one month

  36. Mr Lopez on June 17, 2022 at 4:52 pm

    Releasing toxic water is eco friendly sure

  37. mike moore on June 17, 2022 at 4:53 pm

    Its just a flower.
    Drive an electric car.

  38. Daniel Hanawalt on June 17, 2022 at 4:55 pm

    It would seem losing one rare flower few have ever heard of would be a small price to pay. But where do we draw the line on small prices? Lithium ION batteries need cobalt, much of which comes from a country in Africa, where children 10 or 11 years old have worked mining for cobalt. It’s extremely unhealthy for them, and the pay is very low. Around a dollar or two a day. That would seem to be more than a small price. While the US and some other countries would not use child labor, some other countries will have no problem with it.

  39. VeinBe K on June 17, 2022 at 4:56 pm

    dont walk on the flower, just slowly drain its life out by lithium farming them LOL

  40. KzDM on June 17, 2022 at 4:59 pm

    Why do we care about a desert flower?

  41. Dale Val on June 17, 2022 at 5:01 pm

    Biden is an idiot

  42. Wei Xin Yuan on June 17, 2022 at 5:02 pm

    I suppose nobody really think public transportation / trains would take off as main mode of transportation in the US. The logic is that we will continue to drive everywhere except now in electric cars. Therefore, we "must" mine the lithium and the local environment be damned, as a tradeoff to "meet climate goals" and "save the greater environment".

  43. byron milla on June 17, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    This is way they don’t want cobalt !!!

  44. Common Gunowner21 on June 17, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    This wont end well for us

  45. Laura Anderson on June 17, 2022 at 5:06 pm

    Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about Stanley Myer’s water powered car… oh wait… water is free… oil, gas, and lithium costs money and can be ripped out of the earth by mega-corporations to distract us from better alternatives… fuckers…

  46. Rosario Livatino *Mártir da Justiça* on June 17, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    Grande mina de Lito no Nordeste de PORTUGAL 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹 A maior jazida da EUROPA🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺 De facil prospecçao de superficie. Boas Estradas para transporte. ha tambem muito tungstênio e volfrâmio 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

  47. Hawkern on June 17, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    And Noone talk about the Litium farming in Kongo where about 15000 children is working the mines….. the big companies chose to look the other way….

  48. MrKaili808 on June 17, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    Nurses the plant and propagate as many as you while mining to have plant stock to replant as the mine is recovered back to a natural landscape.

  49. TOOLIN' on June 17, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    He laughted when she said "facial" lol

  50. Tyler Bell on June 17, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    joe biden is destory our country more and more, also you left the big bad parts of lithium mining

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