Maine Mineral & Gem Museum Curator Myles Felch stands Dec. 7 by his new lithium exhibit on the first floor of the museum. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

BETHEL — A new exhibit at Maine Mineral & Gem Museum called, “Batteries & Beyond: Why Lithium Matters” is objective and educational but likely to spark a dialogue (or possibly an argument) about lithium extraction, raising questions such as: could lithium extraction contaminate drinking or ground water or lead to increased air pollution? How might extraction change the small town of Newry where a huge lithium deposit was discovered in 2017? What does Maine stand to lose if they disallow the Newry extraction? How do you feel about the current global lithium supply chain and carbon footprint?

Curator Myles Felch created this exhibit as a resource for the community. He hopes it will help visitors, “get up to speed so they can understand this much larger [lithium] supply chain that we are all a part of.”   The exhibit opened Nov. 4 in the Discovery Gallery which is free and open to the public. It will likely be exhibited for the next three years.

Felch pitched the idea of the exhibit in 2020 after colleagues, Alexander Falster and William “Skip” Simmons wrote a peer review report about the new spodumene-rich pegmatite discovered on the north side of Plumbago Mountain in Newry.

After the paper’s publication, Kate Cough, reporter for the Maine Monitor, wrote in Oct. 2021, “At current market prices, the deposit, thought to contain 11 million tons of ore, is valued at roughly $1.5 billion. Measuring up to 36 feet in length, some of the lithium-bearing crystals are among the largest ever found.”

Mine owners Mary and Gary Freeman have not extracted their Newry lithium deposit because Maine has not clarified what counts as a “metallic mineral.” The Board of Environmental Protection has begun a public comment period that allows the public to weigh-in on the subject. This was after the Maine legislature passed a bill, that was subsequently signed by the governor, to amend the state’s current metallic mining law.

The exhibit

What lithium is and where it is found is detailed in the comprehensive exhibit on the first floor of the MMGM. Other panels detail the extraction process and how it is recycled from batteries.

Part of the lithium exhibit at the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum in Bethel. Johanna Sorrell Photography

In the first panel is a graphic of the periodic table. ” It’s fairly malleable [lithium as a metal] and super reactive, says Felch.” A video shows someone cutting lithium. Another clip shows lithium catching on fire while submerged in water.

Most of the U.S. lithium is likely coming from Western Australia, derived from the same mineral found in Newry, but a map with different sized circles pinpoints all of the major lithium deposits in the world. Noticeably the U.S. is one of the highest lithium users, but not much of a producer. “We have resources but we’re not utilizing them,” says Felch.

You learn that an EV car battery needs between six to 10 additional metals, not just lithium.

A video shows lithium extraction from Argentinian salars. “[Salars are] high elevation, arid regions where they are pumping ground water that’s rich in lithium and putting it in these man-made evaporation ponds … by evaporating the water and precipitating salt out, the lithium becomes increasingly concentrated in the solution,” explains Felch.

One panel displays the unusual uses for lithium over the years. The Food and Drug Administration banned lithium citrate as an ingredient in a cure for hangovers –Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda – by 7Up. The same year it was approved as medication for bi-polar disorder. Some types of WD-40 contain lithium, too

Explanations of how lithium is used in lithium-ion batteries, electronics and electric vehicles are displayed.

The final panel is about the potential for recycling lithium batteries.

The exhibit

Felch said putting the exhibit together was like writing a dissertation – difficult. He wrote a script that was revised many times and needed to sync with the artwork, patterning, lighting, and the color palette all done by Perch Design Studio of Portland.

He plans to write a script for the museum’s docents who will circulate with actual spodumene specimens for people to hold. A speaker series is also in the works. Felch credited fellow curator Carl Francis, with his involvement and help with the process.

Following undergraduate studies at the University of Maine Farmington, Felch went to the University of New Orleans where he studied spodumene bearing rocks (pegmatites), specifically those found in Maine.

Ironically a few years before the idea of this exhibit was ever hatched, Felch was contracted by the Maine Geological Survey to map the area around Pumbago’s lithium deposit.  “You’d have to be climbing another mountain to see the deposit,” he said.

“This [exhibit] doesn’t have all the answers but it will be a jumping [off] point for people who want to learn more about the lithium deposit in Maine but also lithium deposits elsewhere and how complex the supply chain is to make these batteries we all rely on,” said Felch.

The Maine Mineral & Gem Museum is at 99 Main Street, hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. The Museum is closed on Tuesdays.