• 한국지하수토양환경학회지:지하수토양환경
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.1-14
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• 2018

The recent increase in demand for lithium has led to the development of new brine prospects, The brines are hosted in closed salar basin aquifers of two types that are mature halite salars and immature clastic salars. Salar brines also contain other elements of commercial interest, most notably potassium and boron. As a result, there has been a plethora of new exploration projects focused on the brines hosted in the aquifers of the intermontane-closed basins. The estimate of lithium resources and reserves in these salars depends on a detailed knowledge of aquifer geometry, porosity, and brine grade. Because the resource is in a fluid state, it has the propensity to move, mix, rearrange itself relatively rapidly during the course of a project lifetime, and lower recovery factors compared with most metalliferous and industrial mineral deposits due to reliance on pumping of the brine from wells for extraction. This is unlike any other type of metallic mineral resource and hence a different approach specially focusing on hydrogeology and brine hydrology is required for these prospects.