Many critical mineral resources including lithium, uranium and potash are produced as brine groundwater resources. These critical minerals are typically found in highly saline groundwater in arid closed basins, and beneath dry lake beds. Production of brine-based mineral resources entails
pumping mineral-rich brine from permeable brine aquifers and separating the minerals from water at the surface. The majority of the world’s lithium stores are located in brine aquifers, and brine-based mining is presently the most economical way to produce lithium.
In recent years, brine-based mining operations have been adopting NMR logging as a key technology for exploration and development of these brine-based mineral resources. NMR has key advantages over other geophysical logging methods, and these advantages are especially pronounced in brine and saline groundwater applications.
This new whitepaper provides extensive detail on the technical advantages of Javelin® and Dart™ NMR logging tools for brine-based mineral resource investigations.
In addition the paper offers detailed examples of real-world lithium mining operations using Vista Clara NMR logging tools, with information on the objectives, data, and results.
