A fraction of world's seawater could meet energy needs for generations

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed three separate technologies to extract critical elements (magnesium, lithium, nickel, platinum) from seawater; 0.1% of global seawater contains enough of these minerals to power humanity for 50,000 years, with practical extraction methods now being refined.

These technologies are in development; deployment at scale and environmental impacts of large-scale seawater mining remain to be determined.