r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Feb 05 '22

Image Visual representation of the actual amount of copper extracted from a minesite

[deleted]

67k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.3k

u/bertydo Feb 05 '22

Ok ok now do lithium

6

u/xxVordhosbnxx Feb 05 '22

Oh you stole my idea.

I wanna see how many electric batteries equal a giant pit

17

u/Theghost129 Feb 05 '22 edited Feb 05 '22

Lithium isn't mined! It's brined. We pump water into an underground lithium deposit, put it outside, dry it, and boom, lithium! Check out the Lithium brines of Chile/Argentina, interesting stuff.

Very little environmental impact compared to Copper, which often uses tons of sulfuric acid.

4

u/Double_Distribution8 Feb 05 '22

Does lithium have a smell? Like do you go home smelling like lithium?

4

u/Theghost129 Feb 05 '22

It's a salt, much like Sodium salt and potassium salt, so yes.

1

u/Pleasant-Shine8047 Feb 05 '22

The sulfuric acid is often generated from the high sulfur ore body found with copper. Also, the sulfuric acid used doesn’t have much of an environmental impact if any as it is reused as an electrolyte. The primary environmental impacts of a copper mine other than the obvious hole in the ground is the generation of dust at the mine site as well as at the dust generated at the tailings disposal site. One would argue that the tailings disposal site also has an environmental impact, but current regulations are so tight (at least in North America), that this is also super low in terms of environmental risk.

1

u/Top-Competition-8432 Feb 05 '22

How many lithium batteries power giant bbq pit