Construction Begins On Controlled Thermal Resources Lithium Valley Campus In California

NILAND - FEBRUARY 28: In an aerial view, steam rises from boiling fumaroles or steam vents, situated between two of the five Salton Buttes lava dome volcanoes that line the southeastern edge of the Salton Sea, heated by magma under the Salton Sea Geothermal Field at the southern end of the San Andreas Fault on February 28, 2024 near Niland, California. Geothermal plants nearby create steam power from boiling, mineral-rich brine drawn from deep under geothermal fields. A race is on to develop processing to separate raw lithium out of the waste stream to be used in the production of batteries for electric vehicles. This geothermal field at the eastern edge of the Salton Sea has is being called the future "Lithium Valley", with the potential to extract 18 million metric tons of lithium from this geothermal field, roughly the equivalent of 382 million electric vehicle batteries, according to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The area is believed to have the world’s highest concentration of lithium contained in geothermal brines. (Footage by David McNew/Getty Images)