Chapter 1 - Background

1.01 Introduction to Lithium (8 min.) Sample Lesson Quiz: 1.01 Introduction to Lithium
1.02 Lithium Markets (6 min.) Quiz: 1.02 Lithium Markets
1.03 Lithium Sources (13 min.) Quiz: 1.03 Lithium Sources

Chapter 2 - Oilfield Brine Exploration for Lithium

2.01 Lithium Systems (10 min.)
2.02 Basin-Scale Screening for Lithium Systems (6 min.)
2.03 Geophysical Methods for Lithium Exploration and Development (7 min.) Quiz: 2.03 Geophysical Methods for Lithium Exploration and Development

Chapter 3 - Lithium Oilfield Brine Appraisal and Development

3.01 Land Titles and Regulation (6 min.)
3.02 Lithium Development (4 min.)
3.03 Quantifying Lithium Resources and Reserves (3 min.) Quiz: 3.03 Quantifying Lithium Resources and Reserves
3.04 Lithium Extraction (14 min.) Quiz: 3.04 Lithium Extraction

Chapter 4 - Lithium Oilfield Brine Exploration

4.01 Case Study – Leduc Formation Alberta (13 min.)
4.02 Case Study – Smackover Formation, U.S. Gulf Coast (10 min.)
4.03 Case Study – Neptune Lithium Project, Nevada (3 min.) Quiz: 4.03 Case Study – Neptune Lithium Project, Nevada
4.04 Current Developments and Players (13 min.) Quiz: 4.04 Current Developments and Players
4.05 Course Summary (4 min.)

Exploration for Lithium in Oilfield Brines / Chapter 1 - Background

Lesson 1.01 Introduction to Lithium

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Transcript

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction 02. Petrel Robertson Consulting 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. Natural Resources Canada

01. Lesson 1.01: Introduction

Welcome to Exploration for Lithium in Oilfields. 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

Petrel Robertson Consulting 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 lithium fors and helium to geothermal energy and CO₂ sequestration. I'm a geologist holding a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, where I'm now engaged as an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. I also serve as a sessional instructor in petroleum geology at Mount Royal university and I've 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 development adopted in recent years to explore for other subsurface resources such as helium and lithium. I've been involved personally in co-founding 2 successful and publicly funded helium companies, and PRCL is currently supporting junior explorers in the hunt for new lithium resources.

03. Course Outline

So 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 bearing oilfields. We use a lithium systems concept, much like the petroleum systems concepts, 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 developed throughout the course.

04. Introduction to Lithium

OK, let's first talk 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 3 protons and 4 neutrons, making it the least dense metal and least dense solid element weighing in at 0.534 gr / cm³ compared to water at 1 gr / cm³. Lithium is the lightest of the alkali metals, which includes sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium and so on along the left side of the periodic table, like this. It's highly reactive, combines rapidly with oxygen in the air and so has to be stored in vacuum and inert atmospheres or inert liquids such as mineral oil, which we saw in the last slide. Lithium is the 25th most abundant element on earth. So 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 has 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, 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 that could 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.

08. Energy Storage Technologies

In fact, Li-ion batteries are only one of many energy storage options available to grid operators and other major power consumers. This chart demonstrates that individual Li-ion battery packs can deliver up to 1 MW or more of electricity, as we can see on the bottom axis there. Sufficient power for up to 1,000 average households, but only for periods of time, ranging up to a few hours as we see on the axis on the left. There are many competing battery technologies, although most are at earlier development stages. And Li-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 in the upper right hand corner of our chart here, as facilities can store far more energy for much longer times than batteries can. In 2021, battery manufacturing accounted for 74% 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 of glass melts.

10. Applications – Ceramics and Glass - 2

Lithium oxide (Li₂O) is essential for making durable glass cooktops that can withstand large temperature swings and rough use. That said, I can tell you from personal experience, if you sat a grocery bag full of cans down on your induction cooktop, you could be out several thousand dollars if you aren't careful. They crack and they don't work anymore. Ceramics and glass made up about 14% of the lithium market in 2021.

11. Applications – Lubricating Greases

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

12. Natural Resources Canada

Natural Resources Canada (or NRCan) 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 is 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.
OK, so that's it for our introduction to lithium. Next, we're going to move on to talking about lithium markets.