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NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 8 months agoLithium is a heavy metal
Wrong. Lithium is one of the very lightest metals.
Lithium is a rare earth metal
Wrong. Lithium isn’t rare at all.
“Rare earth metal”, not “rare metal”. Rare earth metals don’t occur naturally in concentrations comparable to other metals: Noone ever found a lithium nugget, oxidised or not, you have to sift through cube metres of soil to get at a little bit of the material no matter where you get your soil from.
And lithium being light doesn’t mean that you want to have it in your ground water. Do you want to medicate, or overdose, the whole population on the stuff.
Rare-earth element is a specific technical term. Lithium is absolutely not among them.
One of the main sources lithium is extracted from is brines. That is, it's already in the water and we take it out.
You’re right, brain fart. Still rare earths aren’t rare, and lithium isn’t non-toxic. Ballpark lead? Where’s a toxicologist when you need them. The ores also tend to contain little lithium: Lead and tin are rarer but have very pure ores in rather dense deposits, in that sense mining lithium is nearly as annoying as mining rare earth metals.
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You’re right. I was thinking of cobalt, a different essential element in battery production. However that doesn’t negate the facts on those points.