General Motors on Friday said it has formed a strategic investment into Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) to secure local and low-cost lithium.
The lithium will be sourced from CTR’s Hell's Kitchen Lithium and Power development in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, located in Imperial, California.
CTR will extract salt water from the Salton Sea Geothermal Field there.
The lithium will be produced through a closed-loop, direct extraction process that results in a smaller physical footprint, no production tailing and lower carbon dioxide emissions when compared to traditional processes like pit mining or evaporation ponds, General Motors said.
CTR CEO Rod Colwell told Reuters that the project could be producing 60,000 tonnes of lithium a year by mid-2024.
According to market research firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, demand for lithium is expected to exceed supply by 20% within the next four years.
