Periodic Table · element
Lithium
Li · Z 3
- atomic number
- 3
- atomic mass
- 6.94
- notation
- Li
- group
- 1: Lithium
- period
- 2
- state0c
- Solid
- state20c
- Solid
- occurrence
- Primordial
- density
- 0.534
- melting pt
- 180.54
- boiling pt
- 1342
- discovered
- 1817
- abundance
- 20
- ore grade
- 5000
- ore minerals
- spodumene (hard rock); lithium chloride in salar brines; petalite, lepidolite
- mined as
- Primary
extraction
Hard rock: spodumene is concentrated by dense-media separation and flotation, calcined to flip its crystal structure, roasted with sulfuric acid, leached and precipitated as lithium carbonate or hydroxide. Brine: pumped from beneath a salt flat into evaporation ponds for a year to eighteen months, then precipitated. Direct lithium extraction from brine is the emerging third route.
Referenced by
equation
machine
mine
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