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by mschuster91 7 days ago
You don't need that much of foreign mined materials. The continental US has a bunch of really large lithium reserves, with Thacker Pass being supposed to be able to deliver 25% of the world's output in the end [1], and new sodium based chemistries? All they need is table salt, available for effectively free from the brine of California's desalination plants.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker_Pass_lithium_mine
1 comments
jeffbee 7 days ago
California desalination is almost not practiced at all. Are you sure it's a significant source of sodium for industry?
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mschuster91 7 days ago
> Are you sure it's a significant source of sodium for industry?

There is not much demand for battery sodium at the moment, the technology is still under development. My point just was that the US is self-sufficient when it comes to sodium, even if the regular rock salt mines go out of order for whatever reason, the ocean offers an effectively endless supply of sodium - and the brine is also pretty toxic to local aquatic life, so desalination providers would be happy if you can help them to get rid of the waste.

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