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Lithium plant to bring 400 jobs to Imperial Valley
http://www.desertsun.com/story/tech/science/energy/2015/01/11/lithium-plant-bring-jobs-imperial-valley/21612193/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Lithium plant to bring 400 jobs to Imperial Valley[/font]
Sammy Roth, The Desert Sun 5:47 p.m. PST January 11, 2015
[font size=3]Tesla Motors isn’t coming to town, but plans to extract enormous amounts of lithium near the Salton Sea are steaming toward reality.
Simbol Materials will soon start construction on a large-scale lithium plant in Calipatria, which the company says will employ 400 people during an 18-month construction period and between 120 and 150 people once finished. Many of those high-wage jobs could go to residents of the Imperial Valley, one of the state’s most impoverished areas.
The Pleasanton-based company has spent a year and a half demonstrating its innovative — and top-secret — process for extracting lithium from geothermal brine, a leftover of geothermal energy production by the southern shore of the Salton Sea. Lithium is a key ingredient in the batteries used by many electric automakers, and the prospect of abundant lithium — which is now largely produced overseas — caught Tesla’s attention last year.
But even though Tesla decided to build its massive battery factory in Nevada rather than the California desert, Simbol could still become a major supplier for Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers. Tracy Sizemore, Simbol’s vice president of business development, has said that he expects full-scale production to begin in 2018 — and that if all goes well, the company could eventually build 10 lithium plants.
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Sammy Roth, The Desert Sun 5:47 p.m. PST January 11, 2015
[font size=3]Tesla Motors isn’t coming to town, but plans to extract enormous amounts of lithium near the Salton Sea are steaming toward reality.
Simbol Materials will soon start construction on a large-scale lithium plant in Calipatria, which the company says will employ 400 people during an 18-month construction period and between 120 and 150 people once finished. Many of those high-wage jobs could go to residents of the Imperial Valley, one of the state’s most impoverished areas.
The Pleasanton-based company has spent a year and a half demonstrating its innovative — and top-secret — process for extracting lithium from geothermal brine, a leftover of geothermal energy production by the southern shore of the Salton Sea. Lithium is a key ingredient in the batteries used by many electric automakers, and the prospect of abundant lithium — which is now largely produced overseas — caught Tesla’s attention last year.
But even though Tesla decided to build its massive battery factory in Nevada rather than the California desert, Simbol could still become a major supplier for Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers. Tracy Sizemore, Simbol’s vice president of business development, has said that he expects full-scale production to begin in 2018 — and that if all goes well, the company could eventually build 10 lithium plants.
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