Catherine Hickson reports that the value of lithium deposits actually depend on the area and whether they are brines or sediment samples. Many high numbers (i.e., greater than 400 ppm) are common in sediment samples from the playas in Nevada. Mostly this is Li that is bound up in hectorite and other types of clay and evaporitic minerals. These types of minerals have proven difficult from an extraction perspective on their King Valley property. These lithium-rich clays do have other uses, such as in drilling applications such as oil wells.
In terms of brines, in Nevada values above 100 ppm would be very encouraging, and numbers in the 400 ppm would be very good. For Argentina you would like to see numbers above 400 ppm.
Some of the new extraction technologies claim to be able to be able to profitably extract lithium from brines with as little as 20 ppm lithium. So I guess if this is true anything above 20 ppm would be a winner, but she remains somewhat skeptical.
One thing that is important to consider is the actual brine chemistry. For example, if a brine is high in magnesium it is both costly and a challenge to create a high purity final product. The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, for example, has very high lithium values in the brines but also has proven a challenge to purify cost effectively. The same is true with some of the brines from Utah (i.e., the Great Salt Lake and other places). They have high lithium values, but also high magnesium. So it is not just about the numbers.
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