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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48 Comments

  1. dimitarz on September 29, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    Lets destroy the environment….to save the environment 🫠

  2. RVNinner on September 29, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    Big error in this report.

    Lithium batteries does not produce power to charge our phones. What it does do is store electricity produced elsewhere via coal, gas, hydro, nuclear, solar, wind, etc.

  3. DIOND on September 29, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    Who cares about a damn flower🤦

  4. Outdoor Games on September 29, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    I’ve learned of way too many white materials/etc. now and now I’m afraid I need to learn how to test something white to see what kind of substance it is. There are drugs that are white. Salt. Baking Powders. Now this Lithium. There are probably even more white grainy and powdery substances too and that is going to become way too confusing to discern easily with just looking at them all. I’m also concerned about this area and what it looks like, how desolate it is there. No structures built to provide shade. How do the workers survive in that no man’s land? I wouldn’t put up with that crap and I’d make sure they construct some survival structures around there before starting a work life in that area.

  5. Aria Stone on September 29, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    You left out the part that land is on native American land and you have to remove them from their land. The feds already killed and raped native Americans there before. ABC spreading misinformation… This whole "story" was just an advertisement for the energy companies.
    So the green new deal going to kill and rape native Americans so they can mine lithium? Can you stop stealing their land and leave the native Americans alone?

  6. Derwyn Yleen on September 29, 2022 at 6:47 pm

    You talk like lithium isnt toxic. Go ahead and use it for your facial than.

  7. Michael Romero on September 29, 2022 at 6:50 pm

    They use unlimited amounts of water to mine lithium, we won’t have much water by 2050 do to people storing it all to many people wasting to much and now mining lithium with it

  8. Nick Zussino on September 29, 2022 at 6:51 pm

    Do a story on Graphene Manufacturing Group. New Graphene Ion Battery does not need Lithium.

  9. Laura Anderson on September 29, 2022 at 6:52 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…

  10. awsomenesscaleb on September 29, 2022 at 6:54 pm

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

  11. hockeyplayer0241 on September 29, 2022 at 6:57 pm

    Any video quoting Biden is garbage 🗑

  12. Cd Lu2.0 on September 29, 2022 at 6:59 pm

    Oh and u should also go and c where u get that charge that powers the lithium. Probably 90% coal

  13. Dawn Baldwin on September 29, 2022 at 7:00 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. 💚

  14. Notyourmama on September 29, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    "green energy" that requires 500,000 gallons of water to produce 1 ton of product.

  15. MYRA FLAWS on September 29, 2022 at 7:01 pm

    I only concentrated on the puppy

  16. Devyn Selnes on September 29, 2022 at 7:01 pm

    O NO A FLOWER WHO CARES. WE CAN’T HAVE PLANTS IF THE ATMOSPHERE IS ALL CO2!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

  17. Frank J on September 29, 2022 at 7:01 pm

    Do it in America, or else the price will rise like anything else.

  18. B ee on September 29, 2022 at 7:02 pm

    It’s a good thing the American government is involved, that we we know everything we are told is true and good for us. when I hear democrats say something I immediately start looking the opposite direction for truth.. this will end up like the oil wars we have invited ourselves into in the name of “help” for other countries. Oh, and thanks for wearing your masks alone in the desert idiots. Your saving the world !!!

  19. Nitty-Gritty Truth on September 29, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    Climate change is a scam

  20. mrbonzzai on September 29, 2022 at 7:09 pm

    Oh no. The single species of flower. Aquifers do replenish eventually. I.e, water seeps back in.

  21. June Hanzawa on September 29, 2022 at 7:10 pm

    This is exactly the mentality that has allowed China to monopilise all the critical minerals needed for our energy and national defense needs. We have people more concerned with a little plant than all the damage that fossil fuels are doing to the rest of the world.

    Nor is the method of extracting the lithium from the ponds very effective or efficient. It need to be dumped into much smaller pools where the water can be heated with solar concentrating mirrors with glass domed roofs on top of the pools collecting all the desalinated steam/condensation and using what was useless salt water deep in the ground into now clean/desalinated water for other purposes. That would speed up the rocess a thousand fold and is a win-win for all.

  22. telfud2 on September 29, 2022 at 7:13 pm

    Had to laugh when reporter said should we do it properly here in US rather than getting it from Australia.
    If she bothered to do her research properly she would have known that Ioneer is an Australian company.

  23. Mark Foiles on September 29, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    Total disinformation.

  24. Dale Val on September 29, 2022 at 7:15 pm

    Biden is an idiot

  25. gonz1328 on September 29, 2022 at 7:17 pm

    After i seen biden talking i just clicked off of the video

  26. hockeyplayer0241 on September 29, 2022 at 7:17 pm

    So is the company going to clean all that up once they leave?

  27. b7ray32 on September 29, 2022 at 7:18 pm

    These clowns walking around outside in face diapers….man wtf

  28. Shadow Marshall on September 29, 2022 at 7:19 pm

    @5:35 she asks how long do they have ? He replies they have estimated 10 years to strip mine the area and were left with a giant hole in the ground with a pit of toxic lake water…. That seems to be good for the environment 👍🏼

  29. l l on September 29, 2022 at 7:19 pm

    So much worse than fracking , oil , and CO 2 combined.

  30. David Clark on September 29, 2022 at 7:20 pm

    Joe Biden literally cannot string a sentence together.

  31. Bad Cholesterol on September 29, 2022 at 7:20 pm

    Hey greentards, learn introductory physics before trying to talk about "climate change" and the "need for electric vehicles."

  32. F Frederick Skitty on September 29, 2022 at 7:20 pm

    They’re not “farming” lithium, they’re extracting it. It’s a filthy, polluting business, ecologically-speaking

  33. Tad on September 29, 2022 at 7:23 pm

    So just HOW is Biden going to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in just eight years???? Crash the economy of course. Close up shop.

  34. Clear Mind on September 29, 2022 at 7:24 pm

    Bunch of BS over 85% of the lithium and cobalt comes from mining operations in Third World countries where they use child slaves in the mine chefs. I guess if that’s the kind of trade-off you’re looking for you can sell your soul for a walk conscience.

  35. Mike Lee on September 29, 2022 at 7:25 pm

    Wouldn’t the cleanest way to output less carbon be to have less humans on the planet? If everyone is so hell bent on climate change and carbon emissions, have less of what’s the root cause of the carbon emissions in the first place.

  36. Common Gunowner21 on September 29, 2022 at 7:25 pm

    This wont end well for us

  37. Berdazzle Fanciclop on September 29, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    America Lithium also is starting a mine in Peru where there are very few environmental protections. They are a publicly traded company too on the NYSE, with investors, relying on this mine to meet their bottom line.

    Still, with no appropriate environmental protections, 100 wells plus more are confirmed to have already been completed according to the company’s July, 2022 shareholder meeting, on a video posted on you tube – check out around minute 33:33 and see what the CEO says, pretty much, that we could be using Sodium Ion batteries instead of Lithium. Sodium Ion batteries use salt and graphite, not Lithium, I’m pretty sure no Cobalt, either. SO, why is this Lithium being pushed on everyone, just like in the past with other industries…

    What green plan??? This is not green!!!

  38. / Almigghtydre on September 29, 2022 at 7:27 pm

    Mother Nature creating lithium dumps? That’s logical

  39. Gregory Braun on September 29, 2022 at 7:30 pm

    Yeah go kill flowers in china instead

  40. Tom Acquilano on September 29, 2022 at 7:31 pm

    This video was going well until Biden entered the picture.

  41. moonshinefuel on September 29, 2022 at 7:32 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.

  42. Vanta Black on September 29, 2022 at 7:33 pm

    Come on keep flower and don’t use lithium that would otherwise promote gasoline fueled cars putting the earth more at risk. Bigger picture is to dig out lithium to save the world in a speedy way n replace combustion engine

  43. Louise Hoff on September 29, 2022 at 7:34 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.

  44. The Trump News Network on September 29, 2022 at 7:34 pm

    This is propaganda … wake up folks you’re being conditioned to accept a different kind of planet destruction.

  45. Pete on September 29, 2022 at 7:35 pm

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

  46. Jonathan Lindsey on September 29, 2022 at 7:36 pm

    Beat them kids for being too noisy with those toys cause I’m ever so fatigued

  47. King of Rivia on September 29, 2022 at 7:36 pm

    Lithium batteries are VERY EASILY recyclable. People always forget that. We dont have the capacity yet but its a very easy process that recovers 99% of lithium.

  48. Daryl B. Pain on September 29, 2022 at 7:38 pm

    I love how environmentalist are just as butt headed as trump supporters to get climate change under control.

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