A browser lesson on how ores become materials — and why lithium for batteries is three different industries wearing one element name. Pair the physics of grade and process with the history of material rushes on /history/rushes/. Status context lives on the science desk.
Interactive · Grade & tonnage
How much metal is in the pile?
Ore grade is how rich the rock (or brine) is. Tonnage is how much of that material you move. Contained metal ≈ grade × mass — then recovery, dilution, and cut-off grade eat into what you can actually sell.
Toy: contained metal (t) = ore mass (t) × grade (%) / 100 · recovery ignored
Ore grade1.0%
Ore mass processed1,000,000 t
10,000 t
At 1.0% grade and 1 Mt of ore, the rock “contains” about 10,000 tonnes of metal-equivalent before losses. Real recovery is often far lower; waste rock and tailings still move.
Interactive · Lithium paths
Brine · hard-rock · clay
“Lithium mining” is not one flowsheet. Salars evaporate brine; pegmatites crush spodumene; clay/sediment projects try selective leaching. Pick a path for a qualitative water / time / energy sketch — not ranked scores, just teaching contrasts.
Water
High
Time
Months–years
Energy
Modest–med
Interactive · Ore processing stages
From prospect to product
Click a stage. Most public fights and most technical risk sit in the middle — where chemistry, water, waste, and communities meet the truck fleet.
Stage 01
Exploration
Watch for
Interactive · Geography literacy
Where the map matters
Deposits are not evenly sprinkled. Tap a region for a one-paragraph orientation — enough to read a news headline without confusing Chile’s salars with Australia’s hard-rock mines.
Region
Lithium Triangle
Headline trap
Env & social notes
Environment
Water — brine and arid hard-rock projects compete with aquifers, wetlands, and farmers; “consumptive use” is the adult metric.
Waste — waste rock, tailings, and spent leachate outlast the boom. Acid drainage and dust are classic failure modes.
Energy & carbon — roasting spodumene and refining chemicals can dominate footprint even when the mine looks “clean” on a brochure.
Land — pits, pads, evaporation ponds, and haul roads rewrite habitats and viewsheds for decades.
Social
Consent & rights — Indigenous title, water rights, and local veto power vary by country; FPIC is a practice, not a logo.
Labor — FIFO camps, contractor layers, and boom-town housing pressure; safety culture is non-negotiable.
Who sells the pans — same rush pattern as gold: equipment, reagents, consultants, and capital often earn more reliably than claim holders. See Rushes · Gold.
Downstream — batteries need nickel, cobalt, graphite, copper, and refining capacity — lithium is one link, not the whole chain.
History companion — bronze/iron/gold/silicon rushes and who gets left out: /history/rushes/.
Science desk — nanomaterials, robotics, space status: /science/.
Power — clean-energy framing that meets materials honesty: /power/.
Educational schematic from public-knowledge mining literacy. Grades, recoveries, and regional sketches are simplified for teaching. Not a mine plan, not reserve disclosure, not financial advice. Cross-read with material rushes when the news starts sounding like 1849 with better logos.