The ocean may look like an almost limitless source of natural resources, but having enormous quantities of a mineral in seawater does not necessarily mean that the material can be collected economically. Researchers are currently analyzing whether existing coastal water flows could become a source of critical minerals while also producing other useful materials.
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) estimate that just 0.1% of Earth’s seawater contains enough critical minerals like magnesium and lithium to meet humanity’s needs for 50,000 years or more, assuming those materials could be extracted fully. The finding illustrates a significant distinction between how much of a resource exists and how practical it is to recover.
