2020 AGM QUESTIONS, page-21

no, no, no, no. no.

Brine goes in, lithium sticks to plastic beads, in doing so the brine picks up a Proton from the hydrochloric acid that they use to regen the plastic. (there's another question: do they need to neutralise the acidified brine prior to re-injection?). When the plastic is "full" of lithium, the column holding the plastic is taken offline and rinsed with fresh water to wash off the remains of the brine. Then the beads are washed with hydrochloric acid solution, recharging the beads with Protons and liberating the Lithium into a more concentrated stream of hydrochloric acid, lithium and water.

So i want to know where they get all the fresh water in an alpine desert? I estimate 1GL/10,000t as a minimum