Some of the largest lithium resources are contained in natural brines with complex chemistry and evaporation pond stock piles. Extraction of Lithium from these resources are an unresolved challenge.

These resources contain, besides lithium, high concentrations of magnesium and sodium. Magnesium in particular has an almost identical ionic radius compared to lithium and represents significant competition to lithium in existing hydrometallurgy technology.

Our proteins overcome natural tendencies for electrostatic binding via conformational changes thereby amplifying coordination chemistry effects.