tesla inc. is more focused on refining lithium than on
mining the battery metal, chief executive officer elon musk said, as the ev giant plans to begin refining production within a year. the “limiting factor” is refining lithium, not actually finding it, as no country has a monopoly on deposits, musk said wednesday during the electric vehicle giant’s investor day.
tesla has broken ground on a proposed lithium refinery in corpus christi, texas, and aims to start output within a year, drew baglino, senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, said at the event. the ev giant wants to process lithium concentrates into battery-grade lithium chemicals at the texas refinery. the company hasn’t responded to reports it’s been mulling a takeover of miner sigma lithium corp. amid rampant demand for the material crucial to powering evs. automakers have aggressively pushed into
mining to lock in supply for batteries as electric-vehicle sales rise. stellantis nv took a 14% stake in a mcewen
mining inc. copper subsidiary, and general motors co. is said to be vying for a stake in vale sa’s base metals unit. in january, gm struck a $650 million pact with lithium americas corp. to develop a us lithium deposit. as for nickel — another key ingredient in ev batteries — musk said it’s only needed for “aircraft, long-range cars or trucks.” “the vast majority of heavy lifting” of ev batteries will be iron-based batteries, and there’s plenty of iron in the world, he said.
source:autoblog.com