Researchers develop a new process to get lithium out of rocks

MIT researchers developed a low-temperature process for extracting battery-grade lithium from the common mineral spodumene. The process uses a liquid reagent to dissolve the rock into useful forms including battery-ready lithium salts, alumina, and silica, with the solvent recovered and reused so waste approaches zero. The closed-loop process is estimated to be half the cost of traditional lithium hard rock extraction and could make it cost-competitive with extracting lithium from brine water.

Source: Ars Technica | 2026-05-28