…Direct lithium extraction offers an interesting domestic application in the Salton Sea, a highly saline and polluted body of water in California that currently releases significant air pollution in local communities. If successfully commercialized, direct lithium extraction promises to improve production yields from the 40 to 50 percent with existing methods to greater than 80 percent; this method would also take less time and reduce land and water needs, compared with conventional brine mining. The potential here is massive—new analyses suggest that direct lithium extraction in the Salton Sea could provide lithium for more than 375 million EV batteries, about 24 times current production levels globally.