Australian project 'fingerprints' lithium for green metals trade

SYDNEY -- Researchers in Australia say they have developed a method of "fingerprinting" lithium to determine where it was mined, promising greater transparency in the supply of minerals critical for the green energy transition.

Developed by researchers from the John de Laeter Centre at Curtin University in Western Australia, the technique involves detecting unique chemical properties that indicate which country and even which mine site a sample comes from.