Ever the entrepreneur, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that his firm may get into the lithium mining and refining business directly because the cost of lithium, a crucial component in the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries, has become"insane."
“Price of lithium has gone to insane levels,” Musk tweeted. “There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but the pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”The message was written in response to a tweet showcasing the average price of lithium per tonne per year in the last twenty years. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, lithium has gone up more than 480% in the last year alone.
Price of lithium has gone to insane levels! Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve. There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.Elon Musk's idea is not entirely new. Researchers have been seeking for years to end our reliance on the hard-to-extract metal.
Ironically his mining equipment will soon be fueled by hydrogen, his worst nightmare.
There has to be a better solution than more mining! Public transport rather than environmentally costly private transport perhaps?
Well, if they will get to their own mining than they will set the price for themself and if they can make it more cheap than what market price would be then supply and good price would be in their hands. So I think so.