Digging through the details in the original article that treehugger links to, it appears that the size of this deposit is not entirely characterized, but that it probably corresponds to approximately 9 years of global lithium production at current rates. (228K tons, with usage of 25K tons per year).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Jevons Paradox attempted to show that (for example) coal prices didn't go down when we learned to get more energy from the same coal. It would NOT apply to increased efficiency in coal MINING.
The Jevons Paradox - in my understanding - applies to our use of a resource, not its collection. I'm sure our demand for lithium will go up, but again that's not the Jevons Paradox - that's basic supply and demand.
