with local politicians, scientists and executives to tout the unique resource, whose open-market price has soared in recent years. A crucial point made by the governor: the extraction technique used in the county — in which minerals including lithium found in an underground reserve of boiling geothermal brine are pumped up and then separated — is far more environmentally friendly than methods used elsewhere to access lithium reserves, including rock mining.
San Diego County is well along in its own science-tech evolution/revolution, emerging in particular as a global hub of life sciences and biotechnology. For the good of the region — and the planet — here’s hoping lithium extraction lives up to its enormous promise and allows Imperial County to emerge out of San Diego’s shadow in dramatic fashion.