https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.
Just weeks after a discovery that could transform humble Arkansas into an unexpected global powerhouse in a green-tech future, the state is learning the hard way that, as in life and love, when it comes to lithium, timing is everything.
A study released last month by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment revealed a huge deposit of lithium – the essential element in batteries for electric vehicles – in a limestone aquifer known as the Smackover Formation in the southwestern section of the state.
There’s one factor that could dampen the enthusiasm about the remarkable discovery. A common method of extracting lithium is through strip mining, an environmentally unfriendly technique. Nonetheless, the potential impact the find is nothing less than jaw-dropping.
For the rest of this column: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-arkansas-just-found-a-large-lithium-deposit-but-lithium-aint-what-it/