Apparently, the world\u2019s largest \u2018white gold\u2019 mine is sitting beneath a lake in southern California.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what the scientists believe, who have been researching the Salton Sea \u2013 the state\u2019s largest lake.<\/p>\n
A new study, funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), is trying to analyze how much lithium \u2013 also known as \u2018white gold\u2019 due to its white, sand-like appearance \u2013 is underneath the huge body of water.<\/p>\n
READ MORE! NASA telescope reveals \u2018candyfloss\u2019 planet where it rains sand<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n They already knew the lake was sitting on a lithium reservoir, however, they have now revealed the vast amount of chemical.<\/p>\n Scientists<\/a> have already confirmed four million tons of \u2018white gold\u2019 to be present through drilling.<\/p>\n But they have estimated there could be a staggering 18 million tons sitting beneath the lake.<\/p>\n <\/a>Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n To put it into perspective, that\u2019d be enough to power more than 382 million batteries for electric vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n And with the new Cybertruck being rolled out as well as Hyundai electric pickup truck<\/a> and electric \u2018flying cars\u2019 <\/a>incoming \u2013 it\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n Can\u2019t wait? Here are the top 5 luxury electric SUVs on sale <\/a> today.<\/p>\n Gavin Newsom, California Governor, previously described the Salton Sea as the \u201cSaudi Arabia of lithium mining\u201d \u2013 and it\u2019s easy to understand why.<\/p>\n The new discovery makes the California reservoir the largest in the world.<\/p>\n <\/a>Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n At the time of writing, one metric ton of lithium is worth in the region of $29,000.<\/p>\n So some quick maths suggests that the Salton Sea could be sat on top of $540 billion worth of goods. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the largest lithium brine deposits in the world,\u201d Michael McKibben, a geochemistry professor at the University of California Riverside<\/a> said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis could make the United States completely self-sufficient in lithium and stop importing it through China.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a>Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has given his take on the find too.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been known for a long time that there\u2019s a whole bunch of lithium in this super heated underground pool, sort of deep beneath the the southern end of the Salton Sea,\u201d he said on KJZZ radio\u2019s The Show.<\/p>\n <\/a>Michael Fousert \/ Unsplash<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been companies for decades, actually that have been trying to get lithium out of there, and especially in the last decade as electric vehicles and energy storage on the the power grid become such a big need.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this this new report out of the federal government it\u2019s really a sort of eye popping number. They found that there\u2019s potentially enough lithium down there to supply batteries for 382 million electric vehicles, which is more, more vehicles than there are on the road in the United States\u00a0today. So, if we could get all that lithium, that\u2019d be huge.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, with Joe Biden\u2019s plans to make 50% of the vehicles on US roads electric by 2030, these findings could definitely make that possible.<\/p>\n And this Detroit road that charges vehicles <\/a>as they drive down it is also set to help that transition.<\/p>\n The post Race on to extract $540b worth of \u2018white gold\u2019 discovered beneath California lake<\/a> appeared first on Supercar Blondie<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apparently, the world\u2019s largest \u2018white gold\u2019 mine is sitting beneath a lake in southern California. That\u2019s what the scientists believe, who have been researching the Salton Sea \u2013 the state\u2019s largest lake. A new study, funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), is trying to analyze how much lithium \u2013 also known as \u2018white gold\u2019 …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":42014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}