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A stunning diversity of birds flock to this rare wetland to eat and rest.

Snow geese, snowy egrets, avocets, plovers, some are residents, but others come to recharge before continuing their long migratory flights.

I'm at the Sunny Bono National Wildlife Refuge.

The sandy edge here is the southern part of the Salton Sea

in Southern California.

A body of water rapidly evaporating

and so increasingly saline as a result that the once abundant fish population is gone.

The history of the Salton Sea is fascinating, but it is what's happening now that is making news.

Close to where I stand, near with the geese, the snowy eagrits, and the remarkable

looking curlews with their long curved bills, carefully lift their feet through the sand,

is a mineral source that is key for our renewable energy future. That's because recently,

under the sea, industry scientists discovered a massive amount of a soft,

silvery white metal that we desperately need to run our mobile phones and electric vehicles.

The birds that flock here come for the water bugs, but the engineers are coming for lithium.

Lithium is one material that's crucial for building the modern world.

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