We used to make fun of Fool’s Gold. Now, it might fuel the future.
Fool’s gold or iron pyrite — a common mineral that resembles its precious counterpart — may be more valuable than scientists originally thought, as it has been found to be abundant in lithium.
Lithium is vital to the future development of green energy. This is because the material, which is highly reactive, is a key element in batteries — including of the kind used in electric vehicles (hence the name, lithium ion batteries).
Due to this, demand for lithium is soaring. The precious resource can be extracted from brines — and also mined in select locations including Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Chile and China. But scientists have now found it in an apparently undervalued mineral.
The strange discovery was made after a team of researchers from West Virginia University set out to see whether lithium could be extracted with alternative industrial operations.
They found an abundance of lithium in the pyrite minerals in shale — a sedimentary rock made from mud.
The presence of lithium in this material is “unheard of,” sedimentary geochemist and doctoral student Shailee Bhattacharya said in a statement.
“I am trying to understand how lithium and pyrite could be associated with one another,” Bhattacharya, who is working with Professor Shikha Sharma in the IsoBioGeM Lab at West Virginia University, said.
There is not a great deal of information on how the sulfur-rich mineral and lithium are linked, however it has already been noted that lithium-sulfur batteries could one day replace lithium-ion batteries.
This is because lithium-sulfur batteries have the potential to be more environmentally friendly, because sulfur can be extracted using far less resources, meaning it has less of an effect on the environment.
The fact that lithium is present in iron pyrite is a new finding, and it is not yet known whether extraction would be commercially viable in practice.
“This is a well-specific study,” Bhattacharya said, noting that more research needs to be done.
However the findings are certainly positive, as it could mean that lithium could be sourced without new mining.
“We can talk about sustainable energy without using a lot of energy resources,” Bhattacharya said.
Bhattacharya will present these new findings at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2024 next week.
Comment: Popular Mechanics expands:
Lithium is one of the most important elements on the periodic table. Because it’s lightweight and easily gains and loses ions, the material is central to the batteries that power almost everything in our technological world.
But lithium’s importance doesn’t stop at your iPhone. Lithium-6 (an isotope of the soft metal) is crucial for breeding tritium, which is the hydrogen isotope that lies at the heart of nuclear fusion. It’s for these reasons — as well as the burgeoning EV revolution and the desperate need for green energy battery storage — that the U.S. government considers lithium (also referred to as “White Gold”) a critical mineral.
In other words, the world runs on lithium.
But for all of its amazing benefits, lithium has some major downsides. For one, its highly reactive nature means that most lithium-ion batteries are essentially just controlled bombs — hence the long lines at airport security. It also isn’t easy to extract, as it’s often locked away in igneous rock and saltwater brine.
The world is hungry for more sources of lithium, and a new study from the Isotopic and Biogeochemical Characterization of Geological Materials (IsoBioGeM) laboratory at West Virginia University recently stumbled across another kind of “gold” that could be an “unheard of” source for this precious mineral — pyrite, or known by its more derogatory nickname, “fool’s gold.”
After analyzing 15 sedimentary rock samples in the Appalachian basin dating from the middle-Devonian nearly 400 million years ago, what the scientists found surprised them. Within the pyrite minerals in shale were sources of lithium. This means that the organic-rich shale could have higher concentrations of lithium than previously believed due to little-known interactions between lithium and pyrite. The scientists presented their findings on Monday at the EGU General Assembly 2024.
“These initial findings suggest that pyrite in conjunction with organic matter may play a previously unrecognized role in the Li distribution in organic-rich shales,” the study’s abstract reads. “The geochemical processes that might cause Li enrichments associated with pyrite are not well-understood…[but] using material from previous industrial operations (e.g., mine tailings or drill cuttings) as a source of additional Li would be attractive as it would generate little or no new waste material.”
While finding a potentially new source of a lithium is certainly exciting, this particular method would also be a very green option. Starting up new lithium mines costs a lot — in time, money, and environmental degradation — so extracting lithium from past and present oil and gas operations could help make the transition from those very greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels even easier. That’s because industrial mining operations, especially mine tailings and drill cuttings, could contain leftover lithium deposits in the pyrite minerals left behind in the shale.
Demeaned for centuries, pyrite is now ready to accept your apology.
Comment: Popular Mechanics expands: