Below is a transcript of our conversation with Dr. Mona Sirbescu:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. From tablets and smartphones to the growing electric vehicle industry, the demand for lithium is increasing. Concerns about child labor in the mines and disregard for the environment have led to shifting more of the exploration and mining away from so-called bad actors, and that's where the work of CMU Geology Professor Dr. Mona Sirbescu…
Mona Sirbesccu:
Right now, our experience like, a tremendous shift. Companies and governments are scrambling, right to figure out the existing reserves, we call them, of natural lithium at the surface of our planet, where they are accessible. We need to keep up. With the exponential, the increasing demand for lithium.
DN:
Are you on the path, do you think, to find greater deposits, sufficient deposits, as it were in the U.S. or in the West in general, so that some of that reliance on the foreign players that have raised suspicions and concerns about how they are coming up with the lithium deposits? We (we) can address those and go about it in a safe, not only humane way, but also safe for the preservation of the environment as well.
MS:
We need to be more sustainable. We need to (to) find these resources relatively quickly to keep up with the demands and then also improve our extraction methods. We need to become independent like you said, the Western countries are way more aware of the environmental damage. Indeed, there are lots of places in North America, especially in Canada, especially terrains, that are the oldest on Earth. We call them Archean and Proterozoic terrains. Those are the most prone to contain lithium deposits of the Hard Rock type. Coming back to my research, our exploration model is different. We don't just start drilling. We don't even have money for drilling, and we would destroy the beautiful woods. No. We use almost pristine environments. We use the soils, the rocks that are exposed naturally, and we also core trees (island.) So, we look at tree trunks. We extract very tiny amount of tree material without damaging the trees without damaging the forest, and we basically fingerprint the hidden lithium bodies that may or may not exist underneath.
DN:
Is the hope that by developing, refining and finalizing the method and the tools used to do that, that that is the knowledge that once you could send that out from Central Michigan University and the students you've worked with to (to) have that impact on the industry as a whole, the industry that is seeking to (to) locate and then mine for the lithium deposits.
MS:
We are scientists, me and my research group and collaborators are basically using these terrains from northeastern Wisconsin as an ideal setting to develop a pilot Greenfield exploration strategy. And in the future, our research is going to address also weathering and soil formation and even trees from tropical climates and, then, in collaboration with companies that are searching for lithium in Brazil or Africa, potentially our methods could be extrapolated to different regions on Earth.
DN:
With deference to humane, economic, and environmental concerns, Dr. Mona Sirbescu, through your work, then in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and with your students at CMU, (we) wish you the best as the research continues and the model. Thank you so much for sharing the information with us and taking the time to talk with us today.
MS:
And thank you so much for listening.
