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Geothermal lithium projects recover lithium from hot brine already brought to the surface for geothermal operations, usually with direct lithium extraction (DLE), while conventional salar-brine operations typically concentrate brine in large evaporation ponds. The geothermal approach can avoid expansive pond fields and pair lithium recovery with electricity generation, but it is not yet possible to treat lower water use, lower emissions, or commercial performance as guaranteed outcomes for every project. Those depend on the site, process, and operating data.
How the two routes recover lithium
Both approaches start with lithium dissolved in brine, but they handle that brine in different settings and use different means to concentrate or separate the lithium. That distinction matters: geothermal DLE is not simply pond evaporation moved indoors, and DLE is not a single standardized machine or flowsheet.
Geothermal brine and direct lithium extraction
In a geothermal system, wells bring hot, mineral-rich brine from a deep reservoir to the surface for energy production. A lithium recovery circuit can treat some or all of that circulating brine. In the Salton Sea region, the lithium of interest is in the deep geothermal reservoir, not in the lake’s surface water.
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) describes a generalized DLE sequence: remove troublesome impurities such as silica and iron; selectively capture or separate lithium; filter or otherwise separate the lithium-bearing material; purify it into a battery chemical; and return treated brine to the geothermal system. Selective recovery can use adsorbent beads, electrochemical methods, electrodialysis, or membranes and filters. The specific arrangement depends on the technology and brine chemistry.
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These steps explain why DLE is a category rather than a single piece of equipment. A process has to manage the feed brine before lithium capture, separate the lithium-bearing stream from the remaining brine, and then purify that material into a saleable product. The sequence and equipment can differ among technologies; a label such as “DLE” alone does not establish a project’s recovery rate, water demand, reagent use, or operating cost.
In DOE’s generalized description, the remaining brine is reinjected into the geothermal reservoir. Reinjection is central to the concept, but it does not mean every molecule, solid, or process stream returns unchanged. A complete project also has to manage the removed minerals, chemical inputs, residual streams, and the operation of the wells and reservoir.
The geothermal setting also creates a potential co-product advantage: the same broader operation can generate electricity and recover a mineral. That pairing is different from a salar project developed primarily to extract lithium. It does not, by itself, establish how much power a lithium circuit needs or whether a given facility will produce a net environmental or economic benefit. Those questions depend on the plant configuration and project-specific operating data.
Conventional salar brine and evaporation ponds
Conventional pond-based salar operations pump lithium-bearing brine into a series of large ponds. Solar evaporation concentrates it over time, after which further chemical processing produces lithium compounds. The method depends on suitable climate, brine chemistry, pond residence time, and a large area of pond infrastructure.
In this route, evaporation and staged concentration are built into the process, so the time needed and results depend on local evaporation conditions, brine composition, and pond and process management. Its large pond field is a defining land-use feature, but impacts cannot be reduced to land area alone: local hydrology and the accounting boundary matter when evaluating water effects. There is no single water-impact number that can be applied to every salar operation.
“Conventional brine” does not describe every non-geothermal project. Some newer brine developments are testing DLE, and process details vary by site. The comparison here is specifically between geothermal brine with DLE and the conventional salar route that relies on evaporation ponds.
How the routes compare on practical criteria
| Criterion | Geothermal brine with DLE | Conventional salar brine with evaporation ponds |
|---|---|---|
| Feedstock and operating context | Hot subsurface brine is already circulated for geothermal power; a project may recover electricity and lithium together. | Lithium-bearing salar brine is commonly developed primarily as a mineral resource. |
| Main recovery route | Impurity treatment, selective DLE, and product purification; treated brine may be reinjected. | Solar evaporation concentrates brine in ponds before chemical processing. |
| Land | DOE and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) describe a smaller footprint than other mining approaches, but site infrastructure still takes land. | Extensive pond area is characteristic of the conventional pond-based route. |
| Water | A DOE/LBNL 2023 fact sheet reports 99% less water per ton than current lithium mining processes; DOE says full-scale DLE consumption remains difficult to estimate. | Water impacts vary with site, hydrology, process, and accounting boundary; a universal comparison figure is not established here. |
| Time and recovery | DOE says DLE takes less time and has a higher recovery rate, but results depend on the brine and technology. | Pond concentration is time-intensive; recovery depends on brine chemistry and pond and process management. |
| Technology maturity | Several approaches remain in demonstration or scale-up. The planned ATLiS facility is described by DOE as intended for commercial scale in the United States. | Commercial pond operations are established in several salar settings, although operating practices differ. |
| Key project questions | Scale-up, water balance, energy and reagent needs, residuals, reinjection, and verified economics. | Local water balance, evaporation conditions, land requirements, and site-specific environmental effects. |
The table summarizes route-level differences, not a controlled comparison of two matched operating projects. The 99% water figure is a broad fact-sheet comparison, not a guarantee for an individual plant. DOE says there is not yet enough commercial-scale data to estimate DLE water consumption confidently.
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Land and time are related but distinct comparisons. Avoiding a large pond field can reduce the land associated with the concentration stage, while a DLE plant still needs wells, pipelines, treatment equipment, buildings, access, and utilities. Likewise, DOE’s general statement that DLE takes less time and has a higher recovery rate does not mean that every DLE process will outperform every pond operation under all brine conditions. A fair comparison needs to specify the feed, product, process boundary, and operating period.
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What the Salton Sea numbers do—and do not—show
The Salton Sea geothermal region is a prominent prospect because power plants already circulate hot brine and the resource is substantial. But four different quantities are easy to confuse: geothermal electricity capacity, lithium passing through brine, geological resource categories, and saleable lithium product. Only the last represents lithium actually produced for sale.
- 400 megawatts: DOE/LBNL’s November 2023 fact sheet reports 400 MW of existing geothermal capacity in the Salton Sea Known Geothermal Resource Area. This is electricity-generating capacity, not lithium-processing capacity.
- 21,500 tons annually: At that existing 400 MW capacity, the fact sheet estimates this amount of lithium contained in brine. It states that the lithium was not then being recovered. The estimate is not annual product output.
- Up to 2,950 MW: DOE/LBNL describes this as potential geothermal electricity capacity in the region, contingent on technology advances and additional geothermal development. It is not built capacity or a lithium-production forecast.
- 760 ktons accessible, 2,600 ktons proven, and 3,400 ktons probable: These are separate lithium resource categories reported by DOE/LBNL in 2023. They should not be added or relabeled as annual production, operating reserves, or guaranteed recoverable output.
Resource estimates indicate potential under stated categories; they do not establish how much lithium a plant can recover economically, how quickly it can do so, or how much product will meet customer specifications. Plant-level recovery and output require operating data.
In particular, the 21,500-ton estimate describes lithium contained in brine moving through existing geothermal capacity, not a plant’s designed lithium output. The resource categories are also not a production schedule. Keeping these distinctions clear prevents a large subsurface estimate from being mistaken for near-term supply or a commercial operating record.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhere the planned ATLiS facility stands
On January 15, 2025, DOE’s Loan Programs Office announced a conditional commitment to SPV ESM ATLiS LLC, a subsidiary of EnergySource Minerals, for a direct loan of up to $1.36 billion to build a facility in Imperial County, California. DOE said the planned facility could produce up to 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide annually and described it as the first U.S. commercial-scale DLE plant. It identified the proposed process as proprietary ILiAD technology and said lithium-depleted brine would be returned for reinjection.
Those are planned-project expectations, not verified production. In March 2025, DOE published the final environmental assessment and signed a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). DOE expressly cautioned that “The Finding of No Significant Impact should not be construed as a final decision about issuance of a federal loan.” The environmental finding was therefore not itself a final loan decision, nor evidence that the facility had started commercial operations.
Project documents describe a proposed site of roughly 79 acres with about 730,000 square feet of buildings. That is a useful reminder that avoiding vast evaporation ponds does not mean a zero-footprint facility: wells, pipelines, treatment structures, product processing, roads, utilities, and residuals handling all require infrastructure.
When interpreting an announcement about ATLiS, keep the stages separate. A conditional loan commitment and completed environmental review steps are not the same as a final loan issuance, construction completion, commissioning, or sustained commercial production. The “up to 20,000 metric tons” figure is expected annual lithium hydroxide capacity, not an observed output record. Current project status should be checked against subsequent primary announcements rather than inferred from the 2025 plans.
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Interpret water claims by their boundary
DOE/LBNL’s 2023 fact sheet says DLE uses 99% less water per ton than current lithium mining processes. The same headline number should not be read as a site-specific water audit or as proof that all geothermal lithium projects consume almost no water. DOE’s Geothermal FAQs states: “It’s currently difficult to estimate water consumption for direct lithium extraction because we don’t have enough data yet about the processes that will be used and how the technology will perform at commercial scale.”
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Several accounting questions matter when comparing projects: water used by an existing geothermal power plant versus additional water required by lithium extraction; water consumed during construction versus ongoing operations; and whether the reported figure includes treatment, product conversion, or other process stages. A sound project comparison should identify those boundaries rather than rely on a single percentage.
DOE says geothermal facilities do not draw water from the Salton Sea itself or affect the lake’s level. That statement concerns the lake and should not be expanded into a claim that a particular lithium project has no local water demand or environmental effects. The brine being considered is deep subsurface fluid, so a statement about the lake’s level is not a substitute for an accounting of the facility’s water use or local impacts.
Water claims are particularly sensitive to scale and system boundaries. A number for an existing geothermal plant cannot automatically be assigned to the incremental lithium circuit, and a construction estimate is not an operating water rate. DOE’s caveat reflects the limited commercial-scale data available to estimate DLE water consumption confidently. A project-level comparison should therefore disclose what is measured and how the alternative operation is measured on the same basis.
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Returning depleted brine to the reservoir is part of the geothermal model and can support continued geothermal operations. It is not, by itself, proof of zero impact. Projects still need to monitor reinjection, manage pressure and the resource, and account for changes in brine chemistry and all streams that do not go back underground.
Geothermal brines can contain high concentrations of minerals that interfere with lithium recovery. Removing silica, iron, and other material is an operational requirement, not a footnote. Solids and residuals need appropriate management, while chemical and energy inputs affect both operating costs and environmental performance.
Reinjection should thus be considered alongside, not instead of, treatment and monitoring. The recovered lithium is only one output of a larger process that handles hot, saline brine, separated impurities, chemical inputs, and remaining fluids. The exact residual streams and reinjection arrangement depend on the process and project; DOE’s generalized sequence is not a promise that all facilities use identical equipment or have no side streams.
Land and emissions
DOE/LBNL characterizes DLE as having a smaller land footprint than other mining approaches, and its 2023 fact sheet says DLE emits almost no carbon dioxide. These are broad assessments, not a lifecycle certification for every plant. A project-level emissions comparison would need to account for electricity, reagents, construction, transport, and downstream conversion, with the same boundaries applied to the alternative being compared.
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Co-location with geothermal power may be an advantage, but the presence of geothermal electricity does not erase the need to examine a facility’s full energy and material needs. Reagents, processing, transportation, and the later conversion of lithium into a battery chemical may affect a lifecycle comparison. “Almost no carbon dioxide” is DOE/LBNL’s broad characterization; it should not be restated as zero emissions for every project.
What is established about cost, recovery, and technology maturity
DOE says DLE takes less time and has a higher recovery rate than conventional brine concentration. Those statements describe a general comparison, not guaranteed performance for every brine or commercial facility. DLE encompasses multiple technologies, and results depend on selective capture, impurities, pretreatment, energy and reagent requirements, and the product-purification train.
A National Renewable Energy Laboratory techno-economic assessment published in 2021 estimated production cost near $4,000 per metric ton of lithium carbonate equivalent for the projects it reviewed. That is a historical modeled assessment, not a current market quotation, a universal cost for DLE, or a guaranteed cost for the Salton Sea. It also uses lithium carbonate equivalent as the unit; ATLiS’s stated planned output is lithium hydroxide, so the figures should not be compared as though they were identical product specifications.
The NREL figure is useful as a dated modeled estimate, not as an offer price or a present-day forecast. Project economics can depend on the brine, process design, energy and reagent consumption, recovery and purification performance, infrastructure, and product form. The same caution applies to recovery rates: a generalized advantage over pond concentration does not reveal the commercial yield or unit cost of a specific plant.
The range of maturity is visible in DOE’s September 2026 listing of a University of Virginia project using electro-sorption and electromembrane methods. DOE identifies the process at technology readiness level (TRL) 3, with work intended to advance it to TRL 5 by December 2026. That is a development target, not a report that the target has been achieved. It illustrates why “DLE” should not be treated as one mature, interchangeable technology.
Technology readiness also needs to be distinguished from resource quality and project scale. A promising brine resource does not prove that a particular separation approach is ready for sustained industrial operation, and an experimental process at an early TRL is not equivalent to a planned commercial facility. The various DLE approaches have different development paths, so maturity claims should name the technology and the milestone being reported.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to evaluate a geothermal lithium claim
For a reader comparing projects, announcements, or environmental claims, the most useful questions are about the evidence behind the stated number. Separate engineering potential from operating performance and check that the comparison uses equivalent products and boundaries.
- Identify what is being measured. Is the number a geological resource, lithium in brine passing through a plant, design capacity, expected product, or verified saleable output? Do not substitute one for another.
- Check the operating status and date. Distinguish a demonstration, a planned commercial facility, a conditional financing commitment, completed environmental review, construction, commissioning, and sustained production.
- Ask which DLE process is used. Determine how impurities are removed, how lithium is selectively captured, how the product is purified, and what residual streams require management.
- Look for a complete water boundary. Separate existing geothermal-plant use from incremental lithium extraction demand, and check whether construction and downstream processing are included.
- Check the brine and reinjection plan. Brine chemistry, treatment, reinjection, pressure and resource monitoring, and management of streams that cannot be reinjected all affect feasibility.
- Compare like with like. Match product form, production unit, time period, and lifecycle boundary before comparing costs, recovery, water, land, or emissions with a pond-based operation.
- Consider local implementation. Permitting, coordination among agencies, community concerns, and coexistence with existing geothermal operations influence whether a technically promising resource can become a viable project.
These checks are useful because headline comparisons can combine unlike measures: resource with product, a projected plant with an operating facility, or a broad water estimate with a site-specific claim. For environmental and economic comparisons, the boundary should be explicit and the relevant project data should be available for scrutiny. Technical potential is only one part of whether a project can be permitted, built, operated, and accepted locally.
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The strongest conclusion supported by agency and project information is that geothermal DLE offers a plausible way to combine lithium recovery with geothermal power while avoiding pond-intensive concentration. Its commercial-scale water balance, project economics, and sustained operating performance need to be demonstrated transparently rather than inferred from resource estimates or planned capacity.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does geothermal lithium extraction differ from conventional brine mining?
Geothermal projects treat hot brine brought to the surface for geothermal operations, typically using a DLE circuit to separate lithium and potentially reinject the treated brine. Conventional pond-based salar operations generally concentrate lithium-bearing brine through solar evaporation in large ponds before chemical processing.
Does geothermal lithium use less water than evaporation ponds?
A DOE/LBNL fact sheet published in 2023 reports 99% less water per ton than current lithium mining processes. That broad comparison is not a project-level guarantee. DOE says commercial-scale DLE water consumption is difficult to estimate because there is not yet enough data about how processes will perform at that scale. Check what water uses and process stages each comparison includes.
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Is lithium from the Salton Sea already being produced commercially?
The lithium of interest is in deep geothermal reservoir brine, not the Salton Sea’s surface water. DOE/LBNL’s 2023 estimate of 21,500 tons annually refers to lithium contained in brine passing through existing geothermal capacity, and the fact sheet said it was not then being recovered. ATLiS was described in 2025 as a planned facility with expected capacity, not verified production.
Does reinjection mean a geothermal lithium project has no environmental impact?
No. Reinjection is central to the geothermal concept, but projects still need to manage pressure and reservoir conditions, treatment residues, chemical inputs, and any streams that cannot be returned underground. Reinjection alone does not demonstrate zero impact.
What does ATLiS’s 20,000-ton figure mean?
DOE’s January 2025 announcement described up to 20,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide annually as planned output for the proposed facility. It is an expected capacity figure, not an observed production record. DOE’s March 2025 FONSI was an environmental review finding and expressly was not a final decision about issuing a federal loan.
How much could geothermal DLE cost?
A 2021 National Renewable Energy Laboratory techno-economic assessment estimated costs near $4,000 per metric ton of lithium carbonate equivalent for the projects it reviewed. That historical modeled estimate is not a current quote or guaranteed project cost, and lithium carbonate equivalent is not the same product specification as ATLiS’s planned lithium hydroxide.
The Bottom Line
Geothermal lithium with DLE can pair mineral recovery with geothermal power and avoid the expansive evaporation ponds that define conventional salar brine operations. The comparison is promising, not settled: water use, recovery, cost, emissions, and sustained output depend on the process and site, and commercial-scale performance still needs to be demonstrated with transparent operating data. Treat resource estimates and planned capacity as potential—not as lithium already produced for sale.
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