Talk:Lithium

Semi-protected edit request on 6 May 2024

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reduced cortical lithium

A single 2025 study connects reduced cortical lithium with Alzheimers disease. Is it appropriate? This is a primary source, no review, odds are it will fail to be reproduced. Johnjbarton (talk) 01:12, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

No, per WP:MEDPRIMARY. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 05:42, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

Article review

It has been a while since this article has been reviewed, so I took a look and noticed the following:

• There are uncited statements, including entire paragraphs.
• There is an "expand section" orange banner at the top of "pricing": is this still valid?
• At the end of the astronomical section I find "found to may" which needs repair. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-96700-2 (talk) 16:33, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

Should this article go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 05:06, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

GA Reassessment

Lithium

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Issues remain unaddressed, no ongoing effort to fix them. TompaDompa (talk) 22:58, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

There are uncited statements, including entire paragraphs. There is an "expand section" orange banner at the top of "pricing": is this still valid? Z1720 (talk) 01:37, 30 November 2025 (UTC)

The article is in a sorry state, looks like the typical case of crust accumulation without any major rewrite or update to keep it as a coherent whole... I also see a lot of MOS violations, some duplicate refs, and other issues that I do not think can be remediated without major effort. Choucas0 🐦‍⬛⋅📬⋅📜 15:29, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Error in figure "Scatter plots of lithium grade and tonnage for selected world deposits, as of 2017"

This figure has logarithmic y axes, but the tickmarks get wider and narrower in the wrong direction. I have uploaded a corrected version of the figure to Wikimedia Commons. However, the page is semi-protected, and I cannot edit it, probably because I am considered a new editor. I'm not a frequent editor, so it may take some time for me to be "confirmed". Should I request that another editor replace the original figure with the corrected one? Thank you. CopperChemist (talk) 23:43, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

 Done thanks Johnjbarton (talk) 01:06, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

Thank you very much. CopperChemist (talk) 03:07, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

Extraction

I think the last part of "Extraction" consisting of single sentences based on primary sources should be replaced by a section based on a secondary source like

• Yang, S., Wang, Y., Pan, H., He, P., & Zhou, H. (2024). Lithium extraction from low-quality brines. Nature, 636(8042), 309-321.

Johnjbarton (talk) 03:55, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Recent revert

I recently reverted changes made by @Lfstevens. This change had numerous problems:

1. No edit summary
2. Categories were added or move to the top of the page.
3. Normal, expected line spacing was removed, making a mess of the top of the source.
4. links where unnecessarily capitalized
5. the "krebs" source was duplicated
6. many other sources were moved?
7. space between parameters in cite templates were removed
8. a cn tag was removed but no source added
9. reverted changes I made, like removing the nowiki tag.
10. grammar errors were introduced, eg "With the surge demand in batteries in the 2000s,"
11. many other changes I can't even figure out.

This change was too spread out and incoherent. Please use edit summaries and a series of smaller changes changing one aspect at a time. Johnjbarton (talk) 19:51, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

@Johnjbarton, Thanks for taking the time to do this! I'm bewildered, because I didn't explicitly make many of the changes you mentioned (although they are there and it was my edit). I should have noticed the weird things, so shame on me. I'll watch more carefully. Reversion was warranted. The only thing I did intentionally was redo the Production section. Here is my proposed version. Feedback much appreciated.

Extraction

Analyses of extraction from seawater, published in 1975

Brine

Continental brines form in closed basins where lithium leached from surrounding rocks. Typical lithium concentrations range from a few hundred to several thousand parts per million.

Solar evaporation

Operators pump brine into large shallow ponds. Heat from the sun evaporates water over 12 to 24 months leaving salts of various minerals. The salts crystallize in sequence: gypsum, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium salts. Lithium concentration reaches about 6% in the residual liquor. Adding lime precipitates magnesium as hydroxide. Solvent extraction removes boron. Soda ash then precipitates lithium carbonate. The carbonate is filtered, washed, and dried. Residual brine returns to the salar. Recovery rates reach 40–60%. The method needs arid climates, flat land, and minimal rainfall.

Direct lithium extraction

Direct lithium extraction (DLE)methods selectively remove lithium ions from brine without long evaporation periods and use less water. Processes finish in hours/days and recover 75–99% of the lithium.

Adsorption uses lithium-selective materials such as aluminium- or manganese-based sorbents. Ion exchange swaps lithium for other ions on resins.

Solvent extraction transfers lithium into an organic phase. Membrane and electrochemical systems apply selective barriers or electrodes.

Low concentration oilfield and geothermal fluids can be lithium sources. After lithium extraction, brine returns underground, reducing surface disturbance. Typical desalination brines also have lower concentrations of ~0.3–1.5 ppm, orders of magnitude lower than salt lakes.

Electrolysis can be applied to a mixture of fused 55% lithium chloride and 45% potassium chloride at about 450 °C to extract lithium.Electrodialysis and electrochemical intercalation was proposed for seawater extraction (with concentrations of 0.2 parts per million).

In 2024, redox-couple electrodialysis was claimed to offer cost savings, faster extraction, extraction approaching 100%, and less environmental damage than solar evaporative systems.

Ion-selective cells within a membrane could collect lithium either via an electric field or osmotic pressure.

A 2026 study reported a 95% recovery rate via a hybrid process that began by evaporating brine, forming a solid salt mixture. Acetone and ethanol were used to selectively dissolve lithium salts, leaving most other compounds behind. The method substantially reduces freshwater use. Coupled with solar-powered evaporation systems, water can be recycled.

Another approach exploits the fact that under specific conditions lithium ions are thermophilic. A temperature gradient separates lithium from other ions.

Hard rock

Hard-rock deposits occur in pegmatites. Spodumene is the dominant mineral and supplies about 90% of non-brine lithium. Other minerals include lepidolite, petalite, and zinnwaldite. Grades typically contain 1–2% lithium oxide. Mining uses open pits or underground methods. Ore is drilled, blasted, crushed, and ground.

Spodumene

Beneficiation raises the lithium concentration. Dense-media separation, gravity concentration, magnetic separation, and froth flotation produce a concentrate with about 6% lithium oxide. The concentrate is heated in a rotary kiln to 1,040–1,100 °C. This converts alpha-spodumene to the more reactive beta form. Operators then apply a chemical treatment.

The most common route is sulfuric-acid roasting. Beta-spodumene mixes with concentrated sulfuric acid and bakes at 250 °C. Lithium converts to soluble lithium sulfate. Water leaching dissolves the sulfate. Impurities such as iron, aluminium, magnesium, and calcium are precipitated by pH adjustment and ion exchange. Soda ash precipitates lithium carbonate. Alternatively, the sulfate solution converts to lithium hydroxide by reaction with calcium hydroxide or by electrolysis. Recovery rates reach 60–80%.

Alkaline or chlorination routes avoid sulfuric acid. Alkaline roasting uses sodium carbonate or calcium compounds. Chlorination employs chlorine gas or chlorides at high temperature. These methods produce different intermediate salts and by-products.

Other minerals

Lepidolite and petalite follow similar sequences of concentration, roasting, and leaching. Lepidolite often requires higher reagent use because of its lower lithium content and higher fluorine. Zinnwaldite processing includes magnetic separation to remove iron. These ores contribute smaller shares of world output.

Lithium and its compounds were historically isolated and extracted from hard rock. However, in the 1990s mineral springs, brine pools, and brine deposits became the dominant source. Most were in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. The lithium was extracted by evaporating the brine.

Analyses of extraction from seawater, published in 1975

References

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Lfstevens (talk • contribs) 20:56, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

The new subsections are an improvement, but it seems to me based on a quick read that you have altered the relationship between content and sources. My suggestion is to first change the names of files in one edit, then introduce the subsections and perhaps move unaltered text in a second edit, then change individual paragraphs with edit summaries on why in subsequent edits. That way review is much easier because the vital connection between content and sources is easier to verify. Johnjbarton (talk) 22:09, 5 August 2026 (UTC)