Seawater Could Power America’s Tech Future—If Scientists Can Make Extraction Pay Off

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GAO explores seawater brine as a source for critical minerals like lithium and magnesium, but scalability and economics remain uncertain.

According to a newly released report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), researchers are exploring the potential to extract critical minerals such as lithium and magnesium from the brine left behind by seawater desalination. These efforts could help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign mineral supplies, but the process remains in the early stages and faces significant economic and logistical hurdles.

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Technologies enabling extraction from desalination brine have been proven in laboratory settings and small-scale pilots, but scaling them up for industrial use is still unproven. Though countries like Saudi Arabia have begun operating facilities to collect magnesium from brine, those efforts currently target drinking water enhancement rather than full-scale mineral production. In the U.S., projects like one at Oregon State University aim to demonstrate whether such extraction can be both economically viable and scalable for broader industrial use.

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While the oceans offer enormous potential as a mineral source due to their sheer volume, only about a dozen seawater desalination plants exist in the United States as of 2018, limiting the immediate supply of usable brine. Furthermore, the U.S. lacks the infrastructure to process extracted minerals at scale, raising concerns about new supply chain vulnerabilities if raw materials must be shipped abroad for refinement. Legal and environmental regulations could also complicate the development of new extraction and processing facilities.

Federal policymakers are now weighing how brine extraction could fit into the broader strategy for securing domestic critical mineral supplies. They are also evaluating where new facilities could be located and what minerals would offer the greatest strategic benefit if domestically sourced. These decisions will have implications for industries ranging from electric vehicles to renewable energy, as well as for national security.

Article by multiple contributors, based upon information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office press release.

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