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An industrial add-on to geothermal power plants near the Salton Sea in California could one day produce the lithium that is required for electric car batteries . Already, Simbol Materials , the company behind the process, has begun purifying lithium from conventional mining operations in Argentina, Chile and elsewhere for the global battery market at a demonstration facility in Brawley, Calif.

You may not see it in your home, but chances are that lithium plays a large part in your life--the stuff is found in laptop batteries, pharmaceuticals, and electric car batteries, and it is considered to be an "energy critical element" by the American Physical Society. There's just one problem: While the U.S.