Search the EPA Research Database
Project Search Result
Project Code [2017-W-PhD-9]
This information is correct as of today and is updated from time to time by the EPA to reflect changes in the management of the project. Please check back regularly for updates.
Project title
Distribution of metal ions in ground &surface water, soils and plants in South East Ireland
Primary Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Co-Funding Organisation(s)
Environmental Protection Agency
Lead Organisation
Institute of Technology, Carlow
Lead Applicant
Laurence Kavanagh
Project Abstract
There is growing interest in a deposit of lithium buried in the Blackstairs mountain region along the border between county Carlow and Wexford. The deposit was discovered in the 1970�s at a time when lithium batteries were in the infancy of their development. Because of lithium�s excellent properties as a chemical energy accumulator in batteries it has become a key geo-political resource for the industrialised West. Already li-ion batteries are powering our electronic devices and set to power the emission-free electric vehicles of our future. This modern demand for lithium has created international interest in the local deposit and hence our interest. Lithium in its metal form is highly reactive, raising a number of questions which we are eager to investigate. Has the lithium from this deposit over millions of years diffused down into the waters, soils and plants of the Carlow�s lowlands? If the deposits of lithium are mined will the levels of lithium increase? When any material is mined other metals are brought to the surface at levels that would not normally ever be exposed, metals like (Cd, Cu, Fe, K, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Zn) which this study intends to measure.
Grant Approved
�24,000.00
Research Hub
Natural Environment
Research Theme
Improve our Knowledge on the State of our Water Resources and Pressures
Initial Projected Completion Date
30/09/2017