Another Musical dispatch from the front

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John Wyndham’s book was a bit like Lithium in that once ‘discovered’ as ‘useful’, it set off a chain reaction with unforeseen consequences.

Once again our indefatigable scribe for the distant North West Frontier, presents us with another fascinating insight into what makes Lithium tick.

From personal experience it’s what made my mother ‘tock’. For she was for a near lifetime dependent upon Lithium to stop her going looney. For being a manic depressive she was susceptible to stratospheric highs, and abysmal lows. Sounds a bit like Lithium these days will create another bi-polar disorder on the trans national front and a bit like John Wyndham’s; ‘Trouble with Lichen’, we’ll a be in a serious bit of trouble as everyone wants a piece of the action.  This piece is praiseworthy, cos not only does it tell us about Lithium, but it’s an introduction to Spodumene, Tantalite, and Pegmatite! These are not made up words they truly do exist, and if Frank hadn’t mentioned them wed all be just that little bit impoverished.  So in praise and post-script for a man called ‘Assange’ of which we’ve never heard of there’s food for thought. Read on…….

In Wyndham’s book, the properties of Lithium kept ‘ageing at bay’. Arguably very similar to Lithium keeping ‘Beijing at bay;.(it’s a poor joke we agree).

Amigos,

Lithium (Atomic No.3) with a specific gravity a bit higher than half that of water is the lightest of all metals. Lithium metal and compounds have many industrial applications, but until fairly recently (last century) I was only aware of its use in medicine as a treatment for manic-depression, and its side-effect of reducing libido. I also recall from my student days that a flame test of lithium yields a spectacular crimson red colour.
Resulting from its applicability in light weight batteries and the switch from fossil fuels to renewables in electricity generation,
lithium has emerged from relative obscurity to be elevated to a highly prized economic and strategic resource.
Known economic sources of lithium are in minerals such as spodumene in pegmatites, and in brines in salt lakes.

The world’s largest production of lithium is currently from pegmatite at the Greenbushes mine in Western Australia which is operated by a joint venture between Australian, Chinese and U.S. interests. The second largest producer of lithium is Chile from the salt flats of the Atacama region. The potential serious deleterious effect of the Chilean operations on the hydrology and local indigenous population is another story.

Mad scientists all over the world extol the virtues of Lithium!

The world’s largest known lithium resources are in Bolivia’s salt flats, the largest being the Salar de Uyuni. Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) has entered into major agreements with Chinese and German interests. A Bolivian volunteer at Yuendumu’s Warlukurlangu Artists told me that at present Bolivia is “crawling with Chinese” (not her words).
The current ruling party in Bolivia is the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)
This one for the Malapropism Appreciation Society (MAS):
I recall a chapter heading in a little geology book which proclaimed that “Pinchblende a uranium mineral occurs in pigmatites”.
Pitchblende an oxide of uranium does indeed occur in pegmatites.

In the 1970’s some Mt.Allan residents collected a kilogram of tantalite for Yuendumu Mining Company (YMC) from the surface at Twin Dams on Mt.Denison Station. From memory we sold it for an at the time not to be sneezed

‘Not only will it keep humanoid androids charged for longer, but it’ll stop em going crazy’!

at $130.

The YMC/Central Pacific Minerals Mt.Stafford joint venture(JV) included the Brooks Soak tantalite prospect. The JV exploration focus was on wolfram and tin. Multi element sample analysis did not include lithium.

Photo of a huge beryl crystal at the Bumpus Pegmatite, Maine U.S.A.

The murder of dingo trapper Fred Brooks after whom the Soak was named, precipitated the Coniston Massacre in 1928, only a year after Harry Bumpus had opened his quarry on the other side of the world.

‘Just think, it sweeps’ it cleans, it does the dishes and it’s fully rechargeable’!

In the 1970’s during our stint in the Pilbara I visited an abandoned camp not far from Roebourne where beryl had been manually concentrated by Don McLeod’s Nomads Pty.Ltd.
To the best of my knowledge, beryl because of its use as a moderator in nuclear power plants had been declared a strategic mineral and the Nomads had taken advantage of this.

The Pilbara is an increasingly significant producer of lithium, which back then no-one gave a thought to. The only significant deposit of lithium being developed outside of Western Australia is Core Lithium’s Finniss project a mere 88km by road south of Darwin Port (leased to Chinese interests).

Early prototype Lithium charged autobots were unreliable and ugly.

In the last few years Bolivia experienced serious political upheavals which included killing of pro-Morales protesters by police. President Evo Morales was deposed to a significant extent resulting from allegations of electoral fraud spearheaded by the Organisation of American States (OAS). In 2018 the OAS’s General Secretariat’s budget was $US 85M. U.S.A.’s contribution to this budget was $US 50 M.

Europe’s largest potential lithium resources are on the…. wait for it… Ukrainian Shield.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. (Ian Fleming)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzsILbNB-iQ


Chau,

Frank

Probably too late but you may be interested:

GALWAY ALLIANCE AGAINST WAR

A reminder that we are running a zoom event tomorrow at 2pm Irish time countering the NATO/US narrative on Ukraine, plus the accompanying blanket censorship and McCarthyism. The line-up includes Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, George Galloway, MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace plus two Irish journalists Harry Browne and Eoin Ó Murchú.

Recent versions of hominid ‘auto-bots; are much improved, but still require empathy deficit re-programming.

 
Organised by the Galway Alliance Against War and Free Assange Ireland
Meeting title: “If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.” 
Topic: Peace can be started by by Truth
Time: Jun 4, 2022 14:00 DublinJoin Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83983486949?pwd=RjdoOUxzb2x3d2pIOHNObEtRMWNuUT09