Brine mining

Brine mining is the extraction of useful materials (chemical elements or compounds) which are naturally dissolved in brine. The brine may be seawater, other surface water, groundwater, or hyper-saline solutions from several industries (e.g., textile industries). It differs from solution mining or in-situ leaching in that those methods inject water or chemicals to dissolve materials which are in a solid state; in brine mining, the materials are already dissolved.

Brines are important sources of common salt (NaCl), calcium, iodine, lithium, magnesium, potassium, bromine, and other materials, and are potentially important sources of a number of others. Brine mining supports waste minimization and resource recovery efforts.