Rotarian Karen Bogisch spoke to us on August 13th about lithium extraction. She explained how lithium was discovered, that is it found in clays, rocks and brine, and showed us where deposits are found around the world and in the United States. Karen's presentation included a fun and informative video about the first electric cars that explained why they did not take off back in the early 20th century. It was not until the lithium-ion battery was developed in the 1970s, that a way was found to make electric vehicles feasible. With the need for lithium in vehicles and well as other electronics and for data storage and AI continuing to increase, the need for lithium is as well. As much of lithium is either mined and/or processed in China, the U.S. is looking to develop more commercial sources of lithium. One area of interest is in Northeast Texas and Southern Arkansas called the Smackover formation. Companies have been leasing the rights for brine leases, so that they can produce brine from that formation and extract the lithium from it. That process has been made more commercially feasible by Direct Lithium Extraction, which works much faster than the evaporation method that is used for brine-sourced lithium in other places around the world. Companies are also working on extracting lithium from produced water out of oil and gas wells in West Texas. It remains to be seen how much of this production will end up being commercial and make it into batteries and other productions that require lithium, but keep an eye on the future to see what happens!