Lithium is present in some salt lakes along with other brines in different concentrations. In order to simulate the right groundwater flow regime of Lithium brine along other brines we need to model variable density flow from multiple species. This type of modeling is possible on the latest versions of Modflow 6 with the BUY package and Model Muse.

We have developed an applied case of variable density flow modeling on a andean salt lake that is pumped from 3 wells in 10 years. The model has a grid refinement close to the lake and works with 6 brines: B(OH)3, NaHCO3, NaCl, KHSO4, LiHSO4 and NaHSO4. The example implements the BUY package with all the required parameters together with the configuration of the boundary conditions and initial conditions. Concentration and water balances are processed with Python to evaluate the brine migration over time and the impact of pumping on the water balance.