SALAR CENTENARIO, Argentina, July 10 Reuters In a dusty plain in northern Argentina39;s mountains, black tubes stretching two stories high fill a massive tank with salty brine sucked from deep below ground.

The brine contains lithium, a silvery white metal essential for making electric vehicle batteries and in high demand as the world shifts to green energy. French miner Eramet is attempting to use an innovative technique, known as direct lithium extraction, or DLE, in a race for cleaner, faster and cheaper ways to produce the metal with less water.

Unlike traditional methods, there are no pools of brine spanning the size of football fields where lithium is left behind after the liquid evaporates in the sun.

DLE, which extracts the metal much more quickly, could be critical to global production given 70 of the world39;s lithium is found in brine, rather than rock or clay.

Eramet is being closely watched by competitors from the U.S. to Chile that are also working to commercialize DLE. It aims to pump out its first ton of lithium carbonate in November and scale up to 24,000 metric tons a year by mid2025.

The 870 million project in the northern province of Salta puts Argentina, the world39;s No. 4 lithium producer, in the spotlight ahead of projects due online in the country in the coming months from mining giant Rio Tinto, South Korea39;s Posco and Chinese miners Zijin and Ganfeng.

Argentina39;s new production should about double its capacity, narrowing the gap with…