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Lithium is one of the most important critical minerals required for our concerted effort to curb carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gas emissions necessary for decarbonizing energy systems. Lithium is needed in a big way to build batteries for electric vehicles and super energy storage systems in addition to several other high-tech industrial applications. This paper focuses on different important aspects of lithium, such as its occurrence, mineralogy, and different forms of ore deposits, such as brine deposits, magmatic deposits, sedimentary deposits, and alternative lithium resources, with a major focus on sedimentary deposits of both land and marine deposits. Several studies indicated that marine mineral deposits such as ferromanganese nodules and ferromanganese crusts also contain significant lithium concentrations, and can provide a new solution to the demand for lithium. Currently, sedimentary deposits on the land and deep oceans are receiving increasing attention due to their large size and potential for future lithium resources. While land sedimentary deposits showed a high value of lithium up to 7250 μg/g, the marine sedimentary deposits recorded a high of 781 µg/g. In addition, there are a minor component of unconventional lithium deposits such as lithium in borate deposits, lithium-enriched coal deposits, geothermal waste, lithium-rich industrial wastes such as red mud, acid mine drainage, and recycling which show a large potential. Here, an attempt is made to provide an account of global lithium sedimentary deposits including marine deposits and their potential for large-scale and long-term production of lithium. Exploration studies in different sedimentary basins are also briefly discussed based on geological, geophysical, remote sensing, mineralogical, and geochemical techniques. This cumulative information on sedimentary lithium deposits can trigger many future studies in unexplored and underexplored terrains around the world.
Balaram et al. (Sat,) studied this question.