从油井和气井的水中寻找锂很容易。找到足够的钱来赚钱是很困难的。

在美国和加拿大，人们对从油/水分离器出来的水中直接提取锂越来越感兴趣，这与采矿和蒸发富锂流体等更成熟的技术竞争。

电动汽车销量的快速增长将使这些汽车电池所需的锂成为一种有价值的商品，这一预期推动了寻找锂的竞赛。那些追求直接提取的人也押注他们的创新能够达到他们所说的效果。

今年早些时候，埃克森美孚斥资 1 亿美元收购了一家在阿肯色州南部拥有 120,000 英亩土地的公司，直接从水中提取水体似乎成为了现实。

该价格反映了未来直接锂提取行业的核心地位。该地区提供了富含锂的水以及运输、加工和处置工业规模矿物开采所需的数十亿加仑水所需的基础设施和专业知识的独特组合。

阿肯色州电池级碳酸锂的商业化生产还需要数年时间。

Finding lithium in the water from oil and gas wells is easy. Finding enough to make money is hard.

In the US and Canada there has been growing interest in directly extracting lithium from the water coming out of the oil/water separator, which is competing with more established techniques such as mining and evaporating lithium-rich fluids.

The race to find lithium is driven by expectations that fast-rising electric car sales will make the lithium required for batteries in those vehicles a valuable commodity. Those chasing direct extraction are also betting that their innovations can do what they say.

Direct extraction from water started looking like a real possibility earlier this year when ExxonMobil paid $100 million to buy a company holding 120,000 gross acres of leases in south Arkansas.

The price reflected the location in the heart of the direct lithium extraction industry of the future. The area offers a unique combination of lithium-rich water plus the infrastructure and expertise needed to transport, process, and dispose of the billions of gallons of water needed for industrial-scale mineral extraction.

Commercial production of battery-quality lithium carbonate in Arkansas is years off.