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Lithium is enriched in the upper crust of the Earth about 10 times over its average abundance, which makes it appear more abundant.

Even so, despite the enrichment it remains about 500 times less abundant than aluminum (in atom numbers, which matter for batteries; in weight the lighter lithium would appear even less abundant).

Moreover, the lower concentration of lithium in typical lithium ores means that for mining equal amounts of lithium and aluminum the environmental effects of mining lithium would be much worse, because more rocks are disturbed and more waste is produced.

So there is no doubt that replacing lithium with aluminum for large-scale energy storage is a more sustainable option.






About 40% of lithium is "mined" from brine rather than hard rock sources, at least. Much less destructive and less carbon intensive.



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