The researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia are actively exploring the potential of Jadarite application. It is a rare mineral similar to Kryptonite — a fictional crystal from movies about Superman. However, if Kryptonite deprives super heroes of their power, Jadarite, on the contrary, provides huge power thanks to the high content of Lithium and Boron — two key elements for making batteries and for other technologies of the green energy sector.
Jadarite was discovered by Australian geologists in 2004 in the valley of the Jadar River in West Serbia close to the city of Loznica. The deposit with the same name (Jadar) is also situated there — one of the biggest in Europe in terms of estimated reserves of Lithium. The samples of the previously unknown mine rock were sent to the London Natural History Museum and to the National Research Council of Canada, which in 2006 it was officially recognized as a new mineral.
It was exactly the year when the movie Superman Returns came out, and in one of the scenes the case with Kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor had a label: sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide. It turned out that the mineral discovered in Serbia consisted of LiNaSiB₃O₇(OH), i.e., of the same elements: Lithium (Li), Sodium (Na), Boron (B), Silicium (Si), Oxygen and hydroxyl (OH) group. The match was so precise that at first it was perceived as something curious. Of course, Jadarite did not contain Fluorine like Kryptonite, and it looked much more modest — it was not green, but faintly white with a light pinkish-orange fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet. Nevertheless, the new mineral became a real sensation both in the scholars’ community and among the Superman fans.
Today almost twenty years after the discovery, Jadarite is viewed as one of the high-potential sources of Lithium for industry. And this is not only about classic Lithium-Ion batteries, but also about other types of accumulators, in which the compounds of Lithium and Boron are used.
Western experts, in their turn, urge for active development of this Serbian deposit (Jadar), as well as of other deposits with similar minerals. Such efforts are already undertaken in Australia: they produce Lithium for batteries from Spodumene, Lepidolite and Jadarite.
