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Bonneville Salt Flats

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  • 20-06-2020 11:24pm
    #1
    n97 mini
    Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭


    Anyone else here get to drive a car on the Salt Flats?

    I digress, but it's related. US Magnesium has been extracting magnesium from the Great Salt Lake (which was once much bigger and included the Bonneville Salt Flats. A long time ago though!) for 50 years. Turns out the processed material has been stored after the magnesium was extracted. All 50 years worth. It contains 23% lithium! US Magnesium has installed a lithium extraction facility and will begin processing this material later this year and it's expected to produce 10,000 tons of lithium a year.

    Considering the world annual production for 2019 is estimated at around 84,000 tons, I'd expect this new source will bring down the cost of batteries.

    (EDIT: US Magnesium's parent company is the privately owned Renco Group, so unfortunately no investment opportunities)


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    #2
    sk8board
    Registered Users Posts: 3,185 ✭✭✭sk8board


    n97 mini wrote: »
    Anyone else here get to drive a car on the Salt Flats?
    )

    Drove on it in 2013 with a rental Hyundai. The most surprising thing is how slow you actually go due to the surface. getting past 100mph is impossible unless you have serious HP due to the wet sticky slippy surface and I think there’s even a ‘150mph club’, which tells you all you need to know about how challenging it is.
    Interesting place.


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    #3
    n97 mini
    Registered Users Posts: 8,295 ✭✭✭n97 mini


    sk8board wrote: »
    Drove on it in 2013 with a rental Hyundai. The most surprising thing is how slow you actually go due to the surface. getting past 100mph is impossible unless you have serious HP due to the wet sticky slippy surface and I think there’s even a ‘150mph club’, which tells you all you need to know about how challenging it is.
    Interesting place.

    You're not supposed to drive on it when it's wet! I did it in August when it was bone dry, and didn't have any real problem getting up to speed, though it's pretty bumpy. There is a polished stretch (10 miles long, iirc) for speed testing, but it was closed to the public the day I was there as Guy Martin was using it.


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