Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.

GS-3

4.DOMESTIC EXPLORATION OF LITHIUM

  • Recent surveys by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) have shown the presence of lithium resources in Mandya district,
  • AMD is the oldest unit of the Department of Atomic Energy.

ABOUT LITHIUM:

PROPERTIES:

  • It is a chemical element with the symbol Li
  • It is a soft, silvery-white metal.
  • Under standard conditions, it is the lightest metal and the lightest solid element.
  • It is highly reactive and flammable, and must be stored in mineral oil.
  • It is an alkali metal and a rare metal.
  • The alkali metals consist of the chemical elements lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium, and francium. Together with hydrogen they constitute group 1, which lies in the s-block of the periodic table.
  • Rare Metals (RM) include Niobium (Nb), Tantalum (Ta), Lithium (Li), Beryllium (Be), Cesium (Cs) etc. and Rare Earths (RE) include Lanthanum (La) to Lutetium (Lu) besides Scandium (Sc) and Yttrium (Y).
  • These metals are strategic in nature with wide application in the nuclear and other high tech industries such as electronics, telecommunication, information technology, space, defense etc.

USES:

  • Lithium metal is used to make useful alloys.
  • For example, with lead to make ‘white metal’ bearings for motor engines, with aluminium to make aircraft parts, and with magnesium to make armour plates.
  • In Thermonuclear reactions.
  • To make electrochemical cells. Lithium is an important component in Electric Vehicles, Laptops etc

LITHIUM RESOURCES IN KARNATAKA:

  • The survey shows presence of 1,600 tonnes of lithium resources in the igneous rocks of the Marlagalla-Allapatna region of Karnataka’s Mandya district.

EXTRACTION METHOD:

  • Lithium can be extracted in different ways, depending on the type of the deposit .
  • Solar evaporation of large brine pools.
  • A brine pool is a volume of brine collected in a seafloor depression.
  • For example: Brines of Sambhar and Pachpadra in Rajasthan.
  • Hard-rock extraction of the ore (a metal-bearing mineral).

For example: rock mining at Mandya.

OTHER POTENTIAL SITES:

  • The major mica belts in Rajasthan, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh.
  • Pegmatite (igneous rocks) belts in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
  • Brines of Sambhar and Pachpadra in Rajasthan, and Rann of Kachchh in Gujarat.

SOURCE: PIB

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