Could lithium brine be Mississippi’s next energy boon?
That was the question debated for nearly four hours on Wednesday at the Mississippi Natural Resources Summit in Jackson, where participants learned the Magnolia State could lead in the production of domestic lithium, which is critical in national energy security.
Mississippi sits on the Smackover Formation, which contains one of the nation’s highest-grade lithium brines, high-salinity waters associated with deep salt deposits, said Tim Palmer, a surface geologist at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The geological formation dating back to the Jurassic era extends across several states, from Texas to Florida…