A little while ago, a meme circulated showing a comparison between a lithium mine and an oilsands operation. The point of the meme was supposed to be that oilsands operations are more environmentally friendly than lithium mines, which produce the lithium necessary for the rechargeable batteries used for electric cars and other "green" products. Like many political memes, however, the images chosen and the point this meme made was mostly fake . The image of the “lithium mine” was actually an open pit copper mine, and the image of the oilsands was an in situ process, much more photogenic than the Fort McMurray oilsands which some people have infamously compared to Tolkein's Mordor . The funny thing is, it also turns out our local oilfields are actually one of the best places in the world to find lithium. Just like natural gas used to be, lithium-rich brine is a waste product of Alberta's oil operations. That means mining lithium in Alberta doesn...
