Chapter 1 - Background

01-01 - Introduction - UPDATED (8 min.) Sample Lesson Quiz: 01-01 - Introduction - UPDATED
01-02 Lithium Markets - UPDATED (6 min.) Quiz: 01-02 Lithium Markets - UPDATED
01-03 - Lithium Sources - UPDATED (11 min.) Quiz: 01-03 - Lithium Sources - UPDATED

Chapter 2 - Oilfield Brine Exploration for Lithium

02-01 - Lithium Systems (10 min.)
02-02 - Basin-Scale Screening for Lithium Systems (6 min.)
02-03 - Geophysical Methods for Lithium Exploration and Development (7 min.) Quiz: 02-03 - Geophysical Methods for Lithium Exploration and Development

Chapter 3 - Lithium Oilfield Brine Appraisal and Development

03-01 - Land Titles and Regulation (6 min.)
03-02 - Lithium Development (4 min.)
03-03 - Quantifying Lithium Resources and Reserves (3 min.) Quiz: 03-03 - Quantifying Lithium Resources and Reserves
03-04 - Lithium Extraction (14 min.) Quiz: 03-04 - Lithium Extraction

Chapter 4 - Lithium Oilfield Brine Exploration

04-01 - Case Study – Leduc Formation Alberta - UPDATED (12 min.)
04-02 - Case Study – Smackover Formation, U.S. Gulf Coast - UPDATED (10 min.)
04-03 - Case Study – Neptune Lithium Project, Nevada - UPDATED (3 min.) Quiz: 04-03 - Case Study – Neptune Lithium Project, Nevada - UPDATED
04-04 - Current Players and Developments - UPDATED (20 min.) Quiz: 04-04 - Current Players and Developments - UPDATED
04-05 - Course Summary - UPDATED (5 min.)

Exploration for Lithium in Oilfield Brines (Updated April 2025) / Chapter 1 - Background

Lesson 01-01 - Introduction - UPDATED

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Transcript

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction to Lithium 02. Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd.03. Course Outline 04. Introduction to Lithium 05. Lithium – The Element 06. Applications – Batteries 07. Grid-Scale Batteries 08. Energy Storage Technologies 09. Applications – Ceramics and Glass 10. Applications – Ceramics and Glass (2)11. Applications – Lubricating Greases 12. Canada's Critical Mineral List 2021

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction to Lithium

Welcome to Exploration for Lithium and Oilfield Brines. My name is Brad Hayes. I'm president of Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. and I want to introduce you to Exploration for Lithium in Oilfield Brines.

02. Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd.

Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. has evolved from a 20th century geoscience consultancy serving the oil and gas industry to a modern integrated consulting firm working on subsurface projects ranging from traditional and unconventional oil and gas to exploration for lithium brines and helium, to geothermal energy and CO₂ sequestration. I'm a geologist holding a PhD from the University of Alberta, where I'm now engaged as an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric sciences. I've also taught many geology based short courses for industry clients and other organizations. I'm going to build on extensive experience in oil and gas exploration and development, adopted in recent years to explore for other subsurface resources such as helium and lithium. I've been involved personally in co-founding two successful and publicly listed helium companies, and PRCL is currently supporting junior explorers in the hunt for new lithium resources.

03. Course Outline

Today, we're going to examine lithium as a commodity and briefly discuss current market conditions. Then we'll dive into the technical content, talking about sources of lithium and approaches to exploring for lithium variant oilfield brines. We'll use a lithium systems concept, much like the petroleum systems concept that guides oil and gas exploration. We'll talk about application of geophysical methods for those exploration strategies. We'll then look at appraising new lithium resources and creating development strategies, which must include processes to extract the lithium to create a product ready for market. We'll finish up with a number of case studies to illustrate the concepts discussed throughout the course.

04. Introduction to Lithium

Let's talk first about the element lithium. What is it? What are its properties? And why has it become such a hot commodity in recent years?

05. Lithium – The Element

Lithium is the first metal on the periodic table of the elements. The atomic nucleus of its most common isotope consists of three protons and four neutrons, making it the least dense metal and least dense solid element, weighing in at 0.534 g/cm³, and that's compared to water at 1 g/cm³, so it floats on water. Lithium is the lightest of the alkali metals, which includes sodium, potassium, and some heavier metals. It's highly reactive, combining rapidly with oxygen in the air, and so has to be stored in vacuum, inert atmospheres, or inert liquids such as mineral oil, which we saw on the last slide. Lithium is the 25th most abundant element on Earth. The single valence electron in lithium's outer electron shell is easily given up, giving it its high reactivity and making it a good conductor of electricity.

06. Applications – Batteries

Lithium's low density. High reactivity, and ability to conduct electricity make it an ideal material to manufacture batteries. Lithium-ion batteries have been around for more than 30 years and its design technology has improved. They've evolved from niche players powering wristwatches and calculators to market domination in much larger tools. Now they even power vehicles ranging from scooters and bikes to pickup trucks, and can be recharged thousands of times.

07. Grid-Scale Batteries

Lithium battery demand for electrical grid backup is exploding as well, particularly as intermittent power generation, that is wind and solar, grow in importance. Maintaining grid stability while solar and wind output vary continuously requires both backup from other power sources like nuclear, hydro and natural gas generation, and large electrical storage capacity that can be charged up when wind and solar generation are abundant and deliver electricity when wind and solar don't meet demand. There are many new battery storage facilities planned and coming online for grid-scale power backup, but in reality, the total storage capacity available today is tiny compared to grid demand. So much more lithium will be needed in the future for grid scale batteries.

08. Energy Storage Technologies

In fact, lithium-ion batteries are only one of many energy storage options available to grid operators and other major power consumers. This chart demonstrates that individual lithium-ion battery packs can deliver up to a megawatt or more of electricity, sufficient power for up to a thousand average households, but only for periods of time ranging up to a few hours. There are many competing battery technologies, although most are at earlier development stages, and lithium-ion batteries are the proven technology that dominates today. California has more than 3,000 MW of utility scale battery storage deliverability, but nuclear and gas-fired backup is still far more important in maintaining grid stability. Globally, grid scale energy storage is dominated by pumped hydro storage, which you see in the upper right hand corner of the chart, as facilities can store far more energy for longer times than batteries. In 2023, battery manufacturing accounted for 87% of global lithium demand.

09. Applications – Ceramics and Glass

Ceramics and glassmaking were the leading consumers of lithium before rechargeable batteries became so common. Glassmaking is more economical, using small amounts of lithium to reduce the melting point and decrease viscosity of glass melts.

10. Applications – Ceramics and Glass (2)

Lithium oxide is essential for making durable class cooktops that can withstand large temperature swings and rough use. That said, I can tell you from personal experience that setting a grocery bag full of tins down on your induction cooktop can cost you a few thousand dollars when it cracks, if you aren't careful. Ceramics and glass made up about 4% of the lithium market in 2023.

11. Applications – Lubricating Greases

Lithium compounds are important where high standards of performance are required for lubricating greases in a variety of applications. About 3% of global lithium demand went into greases in 2021. There's a variety of other applications for lithium, including polymer production, aluminum casting, and air conditioning, but they make up only a very small proportion of total lithium demand.

12. Canada's Critical Mineral List 2021

Natural Resources Canada sees lithium as a critical mineral to support the evolution of energy sources in industry in the 21st century. And of course, NRCan is not alone. The United States Geological Survey and the International Energy Agency both regard lithium as a critical mineral. There's growing awareness of supply chain issues to build the batteries and energy sources of tomorrow and lithium is high on everyone's list as a critical component of these supply chains. In fact, exploding lithium demand, particularly for battery applications, is the reason so much new exploration is happening and why we're engaged in this course today.
That's it for the introduction to lithium. Now we want to move on to talk in the next lesson about lithium markets.