Elon Musk finally ended China's dominance over lithium the company's new lithium refinery in
Corpus Christi was officially open on May 8 by Texas governor Greg Abbott and Tesla CEO Elon
Musk the Gulf Coast facility will assist Tesla in securing a domestic supply of lithium hydroxide
a vital ingredient necessary to produce batteries for its electric vehicles as well as for its home
and utility scale batteries in its construction the business intends to spend 375 million dollars
and so today's episode let's find out why Elon Musk wants to build a lithium Refinery and what
would be the impact of this in the EV race hello everyone and welcome back to Elon Musk Evolution
where we bring you the most recent news about Elon Musk and his multi-billion dollar companies space
news and the latest science and technology but before we begin make sure you subscribe to our
Channel and click the Bell icon so you don't miss any of our amazing videos musk claim that
Tesla intended to generate enough battery grade lithium at the refinery each year to produce
one million automobiles exceeding the combined capacity of the remaining refineries in North
America the manufacturer also plans to construct facilities to support other types of battery
materials processing refining and Manufacturing and ancillary manufacturing operations in support
of Tesla sustainable product line in addition to a battery grade lithium hydroxide refining facility
in accordance with the company's regulatory filings the process Tesla will use as Innovative
and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable byproducts compared to the
conventional process on the other hand lithium costs have significantly decreased since musk
first proposed that Tesla may need to enter the lithium refining industry in April of last year
when the Metal's price had gone to insane levels but China continues to control the majority of
the world's processing and refining capacity for lithium with the United States currently
holding only one percent of that capacity the availability of lithium for use in batteries in
musk's words is a fundamental choke point for the electric vehicle industry and others Elon Musk is
the top businessman in the world according to Republican Governor Greg Abbott Texas according
to Abbott wants to remain independent and not rely on any hostile foreign countries for its needs by
the end of the decade Elon Musk hopes to sell 20 million Tesla vehicles annually and this is no
idle threat it was therefore puzzling that Tesla's long-awaited Ambitions for an affordable electric
car were an utter no-show at the unveiling of its most recent master plan in Texas a more affordable
Tesla would undoubtedly attract additional potential buyers however Tesla's CFO stated
at the event that the company will concentrate on the efficiency that is a highly popular Trend in
Silicon Valley in order to raise the 175 billion dollars needed to make the necessary expenditures
to meet its objective of 20 million cars per year a clear path to a smaller vehicle that is
half the production cost of the model 3. Tesla's most affordable vehicle with a starting price of
about 43 thousand dollars was hinted to by musk himself at a Morgan Stanley conference even said
it is evident that Tesla still has a long way to go before achieving musk's objective given
that it delivered almost 1.3 million Vehicles last year where exactly should it begin in
order to become more effective with batteries arguably the most expensive EV component of all
to truly build a sustainable low-cost EV none more so than batteries which Tesla did not sufficiently
highlight at investor day a vital combination of metals is required for Batteries the rechargeable
workhorses of EVS that essentially power the entire vehicle with lithium perhaps playing
the most important role the issue is that Tesla is having problems controlling battery
costs due to record high lithium pricing and a complicated supply chain that dates back to China
musk needs to work hard to reduce the price of batteries if he wants to provide EVS that are
affordable for everyone failure to do so runs the risk of handing the market over to roving
rifles but Tesla has a clear path to growth if it can pull it off the high price of lithium is
a significant issue for Tesla last week Tesla used the occasion to announce new initiatives to help
its effort to make affordable EV such as a new 5 billion dollar Tesla gigafactory in Mexico however
Tesla did not seriously address strategies to lower the high cost of its battery raw materials
including lithium until recently by announcing that nearly half of its Vehicles manufactured
in the first three months of 2022 were lfp based Tesla is committed to the technology there are a
couple issues with the strategy though even while there's enough lithium in the United States to
Electrify all of Earth musk stated during investor day the process of turning the metal into battery
grade materials remains a bottleneck despite having the greatest lithium reserves among the
five nations the U.S ranks quite low in terms of production output Paul Gettys a head of capital
markets at Nano one materials a Lithium-Ion battery producer in Quebec claims that China
on the other hand controls 99 of the lfp market a deal Tesla head with Chinese battery provider catl
in 2020 is partially to blame for the increased number of lfp vehicles it's selling this may be
a contributing factor to the fact that musk encourage listeners to enter the lithium
refining industry during a chunk of its earnings calls the previous year and at investor day
additionally in the same situation are its rifles to develop a facility in Nevada General Motors is
giving the Lithia mining business lithium America is a 650 million dollar investment Ford stated
earlier this year that it would spend 3.5 billion dollars on the first lfp battery plant which would
be located in Michigan Nano one materials a Canadian one company that collaborates with
Volkswagen and just signed a deal with an unnamed American automaker with a global distribution
Network purchased one of the largest lfp plants outside of China which is situated in Montreal in
order to Market its technology given that lithium prices have reached record highs all of this is
very intriguing according to statistics from Benchmark the price of lithium carbonate increased
exponentially from 7508 per ton in January 2020 to an all-time high of 70 957 dollars per ton in
January according to musk's tweet it is reaching insane levels an inability to control the supply
chain inhibits efforts to manufacture inexpensive EVS if Tesla is sincere about lowering the price
of the battery Moore's believes that locking in long-term raw material prices will be essential
the corporation began to take action in order to seize control of the lithium supply in 2020 Tesla
signed a multi-year agreement with Piedmont lithium an Australian Miner with a location
in North Carolina in addition kansas-based Compass minerals and nevada-based Abu Marley
both of which mine and processed lithium include the EV manufacturer among its clients the Texas
gigafactory of Tesla will begin producing lithium later this year the company said
during its investor day Moore is asserted that lithium carbonate won't be sourced from the Texas
facility due to its emphasis on generating lithium hydroxide a version of the metal with Superior
performance that's unrelated to its planes to create affordable EVS there's also a security
component according to Gettys who spoke to Insider he claimed that Tesla is making a lot of effort to
secure resources in its supply chain partner so that it has consistent supply of lithium for its
batteries to deliver the quantity of automobiles it had promised investors it may take five to ten
years to establish lithium mines to meet the needs of the EV sector Elon Musk asks business
people to please refine lithium when EVS reach a limit this past week Elon Musk warned investors
of a rising issue facing the U.S electric car industry obtaining refined lithium for
Ev batteries lithium is actually extremely common throughout the world including in the U.S so the
bottleneck is much more with refining capacity than it is with mining musk stated on Tesla's
earnings call where is the refining capacity and can it keep up as a much more important concern
musk emphasize Tesla's intention to build a Refinery for lithium close to Corpus Christi Texas
musk also used the occasion to urge other business people to refine more of the material needed in
batteries for electric vehicles as he has in the past musk requested that considerable industry
Focus be placed on mining and refining lithium rather than creating a picture sharing software
where will all the material come from a large portion of the world's lithium is being refined
in China for that nation's expanding electric vehicle Market but there will soon be a huge
demand for lithium in the U.S due to the Biden administration's quest for greener Technologies
according to Keith Phillips CEO of Piedmont lithium whose clients include Tesla and LG chem
we currently in the U.S produce around 20 000 tons of lithium hydroxide refined in the U.S we think
we need over 700 000 by the second half of this decade so 35 times more he said in an interview
this is all a little more future oriented and I wonder where all the material is going to come
from the construction of an integrated mine and refinery in North Carolina as well as a
refinery in Tennessee is being done by Piedmont the business is also involved in projects in Ghana
and Quebec we need more of both Phillips declared because you can create a battery out of rocks we
obviously need additional refining capacity however the most pressing need in my opinion
is for more ground-based raw materials and the more of those we can generate in the US the better
the U.S has discovered lithium-riches on the other hand mining projects take around 10 years to
complete the construction of refineries typically takes two years Bank of America analyst Michael
Whitmer recently stated in a research that you can't just flick a switch and bring more metals to
the market according to whitmer's research there are multiple metal and Mining shortages that need
to be addressed at various Nations including those for lithium copper nickel and aluminum bottom line
we are currently not investing enough money in the ground for many Commodities according to
Widmer lithium has dropped significantly prices for lithium reach their high in 2022 and have
subsequently dropped by over 50 percent Moscow and April said lithium constant reach insane
levels noted this week that they had fallen it's important to note that the price of lithium is
drastically decreased as Tesla's efforts to lower the price of its cars in China and the US weighed
on profitability in its most recent quarter falling commodity costs are anticipated to benefit
the EV manufacturer's margins despite lithium's fall price have increased by roughly three times
since two years ago which coincides with the fact that most automakers are still focusing
on the switch to electric vehicles for instance Ford recently disclosed plans to collaborate with
a Chinese supplier to develop a new 3.5 billion dollar EV battery plant in Michigan I think this
Market will look a lot more like a copper or an oil one where the supply demand balance is more
in sync in the very long run when more mines are discovered when more refineries are built
when recycling becomes a factor in about 10 plus years from now according to piedmont's lithium
in essence there aren't really enough mines and refineries being developed to support all
the battery facilities that are being constructed and really catching up with the lithium business
there are worries about the environmental and socio-economic effects of lithium mining despite
the fact that it may help Advance renewable energy technology the environmental impact of lithium
mining is one of the issues lithium mining can cause heavy metal and chemical pollution of the
air and water as well as significant water and energy consumption during the extraction process
lithium mining can also harm the environment over the long run by causing soil erosion and
the disruption of animal habitats more efforts are being made to create more environmentally friendly
mining techniques including the utilization of renewable energy sources and a reduction in the
usage of water and chemicals lithium mining may have social repercussions in addition to
its environmental effects mining occasionally causes the eviction of nearby communities or
negatively impacts their Health and Welfare in four nations where labor laws and environmental
regulations are frequently lacks the majority of the world's lithium reserves are located human
rights violations such as child labor and forced labor as well as environmental damage may result
from this companies that mine lithium must put an emphasis on moral and ethical Behavior including
upholding Fair labor standards and involving the community to overcome these problems
Lithia mining has the ability to Aid in the advancement of sustainable energy despite these
worries for storing renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy Lithium-ion batteries are a
crucial technology as a result the shift to a more sustainable civilization includes lithium mining
so what's behind lithium mining the demand for the metal Rises along with the popularity of
electric vehicles the need for lithium extraction is rising globally mostly due to the rising usage
of lithium and electronic Battery Technology and electric cars but from whence does lithium
originate and how is it made in its simplest form lithium is an extremely reactive Alkali metal
with Superior thermal and electrical conductivity these qualities make it particularly advantageous
for the production of lubricants drugs glass and most significantly Lithium-ion batteries for EVS
and consumer devices however due to its high reactivity lithium cannot be found in nature
alone it is instead a component of salts or other chemicals the majority of lithium that
is sold on the market may be found as lithium carbonate a more stable substance that can be
converted into other substances like chemicals or salts clay mineral ore brine geothermal water
and seawater are all examples of subterranean deposits that include lithium salts with mind
for Minds where it makes up the majority of the world Supply the maximum concentration of lithium
between one thousand and three thousand parts per million is found in brainy Lakes commonly referred
to as solars lithium acquired from Solaris is subsequently extracted in the form of lithium
carbonate which is the principle raw material that is utilized by businesses in Lithium-ion
batteries the Solaris with the highest lithium concentrations are situated in Bolivia Argentina
and Chile in an area known as the lithium triangle solars typically require between
eight and three years to complete the lengthy process of brine mining Brian is pumped to the
surface once a hole is dug and Mining begins then they leave it to evaporate for months while the
first prepare a mixture of Manganese potassium borax and salts that is filtered and added to
another evaporation pool in order to be able to extract the lithium carbonate often known as white
gold from that mixture it will need between 12 and 18 months of filtering despite being
inexpensive and efficient the method requires a lot of water it is estimated that it uses 500
000 gallons of water for every ton of lithium extracted in the adjacent local towns this puts
a lot of strain on them as an illustration mining has resulted in a loss of 65 percent of the water
supply in Chiles salar de Atacama local farmers who depend on Farming and raising cattle for a
living now I have to find alternative sources of water which has had an impact on their livelihoods
Lithia mining has a number of potential issues outside merely the local water shortage
hydrochloric acid which is used in the production of lithium and waste materials that can filter
out of the brine are just two examples of toxic chemicals that can escape from the evaporation
pools into the water supply the more conventional techniques are typically used in the United States
Canada and Australia to extract lithium from The Rock to extract it in a form that can be
used however still calls for the employment of chemicals the study discovered effects on fish
150 miles Downstream from the lithium processing facility in Nevada for instance and according to
our friends of the earth report lithium extraction can contaminate the air and have an impact on
the soil in order to manufacture batteries in a more ecologically responsible manner researchers
contend that new extraction Technologies must be developed because of this people all around the
world are searching for New Alternatives such as battery chemistries that use less hazardous and
more accessible elements to replace Cobalt and lithium however more expensive or less
energy dense modern batteries may have an adverse impact on the environment wind transportation and
additional packaging are taken into account a less robust but more environmentally friendly
technology may result in a greater carbon footprint another important factor is the
ability to recycle lithium ion according to studies only two percent of Australia's 3 300
tons of lithium-ion waste was recycled due to the possibility of old devices and batteries ending
up in landfills as well as the possibility of metals and ionic fluids leaking into subsurface
water reservoirs this can be problematic in order to find ways to remove and disassemble potentially
explosive lithium-ion cells from electric vehicles the Birmingham energy Institute is leveraging
robotics technology that was originally created for nuclear power plants Lithium-ion batteries
that were improperly kept caught fire in a number of recycling facilities one major issue is that
manufacturers frequently keep the contents of their batteries a mystery which makes it
challenging to recycle batteries correctly the majority of the recovered cells have now been
destroyed creating a combination of metals that may be separated using pyro metallurgical methods
however according to the company's papers the process Tesla will use is innovative
and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable byproducts when compared to
the conventional process musk stated on Monday that there's no toxic emissions or anything you
could live right in the middle of the refinery and not suffer any ill effects usually refining
or into battery grade lithium necessitates an industrial process that includes crushing
raw material Heating in at high temperatures and combining it in a slurry with acids hydrochloric
acid is a hazardous air pollutant under the U.S Clean Air Act and is commonly used in
lithium manufacturing with that being said how would the people in Texas react to this let us
know your thoughts in the comments box below and that ends today's episode please subscribe and
don't forget to like today's video and we'll see you in our next video thanks for watching