Tesla To Start Mining Its Own Lithium

Tesla To Start Mining Its Own Lithium

In the latest news from Tesla, Tesla is exploring building a lithium refinery facility on the gulf of Texas, according to reports from Bloomberg. This will be part of Master Plan Part 3 from Elon Musk.

In a detailed description of the project, the following is revealed:

Tesla is in the process of evaluating possible development of a battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility, which will be the first of its kind in North America, as well as facilities to support other types of battery materials processing, refining and manufacturing and other manufacturing operations in support of Tesla's sustainable product line.

Tesla will process the raw ore material into a more usable state for battery production. The process Tesla will use is innovative and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable by-products compared to the conventional process.

The final product, battery-grade lithium hydroxide, will be packaged and shipped by truck and rail to various Tesla battery manufacturing sites supporting the necessary supply chain for large-scale and electric vehicle batteries.

For more information, you can read this article on Bloomberg.

Master Plan Part 3

Steven Mark Ryan has been saying this for a while now, that in order for Tesla to reach its 20 million vehicles per year goal, that it would have to start mining its own raw materials because relying on battery suppliers alone would be too slow.

I am so totally shocked, how could anyone have seen this coming.https://t.co/LNvPJL6ypJ— stevenmarkryan (@stevenmarkryan) September 9, 2022

This looks like it is proving to be true and if this facility is constructed, the current production date appears to be the fourth quarter of 2024 (in about 2 years). Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment about the matter, but they don't need to. They are going to have to mine their own raw materials in order to get enough batteries for a sustainable future.

The price of Lithium per tone has been rapidly increasing over the last 10 years, from $4,450 in 2012 to about $78,032 in 2022. Most likely the price will come down once electric vehicles have reached volume production and batteries are being recycled and there are enough batteries to power the worlds energy needs.

This further expands Tesla's vertical integration, relying less and less on 3rd party suppliers and instead taking care of everything they need to do themselves. I'm looking forward to seeing how much Lithium Tesla is able to mine here and if other facilities are announced.

What do you think about Tesla mining its own raw materials? Will this help Tesla get to 20 million vehicles per year?

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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.

Image Credit, Lithium Facts, Screenshot