With lithium being such a volatile and reactive element, how does such a large deposit of the element not just explode with coming in contact with the air? Is there a bigger danger when mining lithium compared to other materials? What happens if it rains or a large amount of water comes into contact with the mine?
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Lithium is only really dangerous the way you describe in its elemental (metallic) form.
When you find these metals just sitting in the ground, they’ve been exposed to air, water, and other things so that they’ve already produced these… ***excitingly*** energetic reactions. What is left are lithium ions bound to other things (like chlorides, phosphates, and other stuff).
This is known as the “ore” and it has to be processed in order to drive off the non-lithium impurities and return it to elemental metallic lithium.
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