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Selenium is actually not very abundant. It's the 69th most abundant element in the Earth's continental crust, at an average concentration of about 50 ppb. It's less abundant than silver and only 10x more abundant than platinum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth...



> less abundant than silver

Hmmm. So are these proposed batteries viable? Are they mostly Sulphur and a bit of Selenium (and presumably some other stuff)?


Here's the USGS 2023 Mineral Commodities Summary for Selenium.

https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023-selenium.p...

World production for 2022: 3,200 tonnes World reserves: 81,000 tonnes

There's not a whole lot available. It occurs at 0.5 to 12 ppm in coal, so large amounts of coal ash might be a future resource. It's not economic to extract that now, vs. current secondary extraction from copper anode slimes.


I will add that the concentration of Se in carbonaceous chondrites is around 20 ppm. Eventually we might mine asteroids for it.




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