Comment by sbierwagen

Brine mining isn't new, of course. Table salt is the canonical example of a metal compound extracted by evaporating brine, but there's a dozen other elements that are harvested at scale for profit from various brines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_mining including Magnesium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_mining#Magnesium_and_mag...

If you're in the bay area, you've seen a brine mine dozens of times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Salt_Ponds