{"id":1529566,"date":"2022-06-27T14:50:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T18:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1529566"},"modified":"2022-06-27T14:50:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T18:50:49","slug":"fact-check-is-this-a-photo-of-a-lithium-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-is-this-a-photo-of-a-lithium-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Is This A Photo Of A Lithium Mine?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-is-this-a-photo-of-a-lithium-mine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1529566&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>An image <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/TYZ5E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> purportedly shows a lithium mine.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7453327\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7453327\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook\/Screenshot<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><span>Verdict: False<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The image shows a gold mine in Australia. Most lithium is not obtained through mining.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span>Fact Check:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Approximately 86 million tons of lithium resources have been identified around the world, including 7.9 million in the U.S., according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.usgs.gov\/periodicals\/mcs2021\/mcs2021-lithium.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Geological Survey<\/a>. An image shared on Facebook more than 440 times claims to show a lithium mine located near a populated area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a LIUTHIUM mine. One of several hundred spread around the world,\u201d the captions reads. The post goes on to state that \u201ctens of thousands of gallons\u201d of diesel fuel are burned in order to mine the element.<\/p>\n<p>The photo does not show a lithium mine, however. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/the-kalgoorlie-super-pit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mining.com<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2016\/07\/31\/diggers-and-dealers-news-and-views-in-kalgoorlie-western-australia-with-cnbcs-matthew-taylor.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CNBC<\/a> both shared photos of the same site and identified it as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.superpit.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fimiston Open Pit gold mine<\/a>, also known as the \u201csuper-pit,\u201d in Kalgoorlie, Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Super Pit is a gold-only operation,\u201d Cannings Purple Investor Relations Director Peter Kingler, who works with the pit\u2019s owner Northern Star Resources, told Check Your Fact in an email. \u201cTo the best of my knowledge there has not been any lithium production since the Super Pit was created about 40 years ago. Western Australia is home to several hard-rock lithium mines that feature open pits, which may be the cause of the confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are no credible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=Australia+Super+Pit+lithium+production&#038;sxsrf=ALiCzsYWFfMZjPYzawiMiC395cktZwTL3w%3A1655480517386&#038;ei=xaCsYtCRF43CtAbWj6yYDg&#038;ved=0ahUKEwiQiK_B6bT4AhUNIc0KHdYHC-MQ4dUDCA8&#038;uact=5&#038;oq=Australia+Super+Pit+lithium+production&#038;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BAgjECc6BwgjELACECdKBQg8EgE0SgQIQRgASgQIRhgAUABYhCxgky1oBHABeACAAXGIAZEHkgEEMTIuMZgBAKABAcABAQ&#038;sclient=gws-wiz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">news reports<\/a> suggesting that lithium has begun turning up in the mine. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2019\/09\/06\/fact-check-ocasio-cortez-tweet-electric-cars-hurricane-dorian\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Did Ocasio-Cortez Tweet About Electric Cars During Hurricane Dorian?)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Colorado School of Mines Mining Engineering Department head <a href=\"https:\/\/mining.mines.edu\/project\/enders-m-stephen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr. Merritt Enders<\/a> previously told <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2022\/05\/12\/fact-check-oil-wells-lithium-mines-environment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Check Your Fact<\/a> via email in May 2022 that \u201cmost lithium is processed in brine\u201d and that only \u201csome hard rock lithium deposits are mined using surface mining methods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuch of the world\u2019s lithium comes from brine operations where no mining is done,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globallithium.net\/whatwedo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Global Lithium LLC<\/a> founder and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globallithium.net\/podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Global Lithium Podcast<\/a> host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globallithium.net\/whatwedo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Lowry<\/a> said in an email to Check Your Fact. \u201cThere are less than 10 hard rock lithium mines (ex China) in commercial operation and they don\u2019t all use the same equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A lithium plant, the Mount Marion Lithium Project, is located approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Kalgoorlie, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining-technology.com\/projects\/mount-marion-lithium-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mining-Technology<\/a>. An image of the project, as seen on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mineralresources.com.au\/our-business\/commodities\/lithium\/mt-marion-lithium\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MineralResources<\/a>, shows a vastly different location than the one in the Facebook photo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a lithium mine.Facebook\/ScreenshotVerdict: False The image shows a gold mine in Australia. Most lithium is not obtained through mining. Fact Check: Approximately 86<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1529566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1529566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1529566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1529566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1529566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}