The other traditional method is to leach lithium from ore ... generate more by increasing the surface area—so more salt ponds ...

Just how toxic the photographed lithium leach field ponds are is a difficult question to answer, so we have contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in hopes of clarifying.

This work tested leaching characteristics ... the selective recovery of lithium. Membrane technology has significant advantages compared to traditional evaporation pond-type lithium recovery ...