The worldwide lithium Supply is strained and much of this comes down to the development of new technology as well as satisfying the demand for battery technology in the electric vehicle market. One of the largest electric vehicle producers in the world is Tesla and the company, alongside Elon Musk is looking at the possibility of mining their own Lithium or investing in a supplier for their company.
The overall costs of lithium have been driven up due to strained demands. The cost of the metal has gone up over 480% over the last year. Tesla is not the only company feeling the effects of these high prices. Apple, Samsung, and LG are all major consumers of lithium for their own products.
Elon Musk has spoken about these issues on Twitter.
In a tweet, he said “Price of lithium has gone to insane levels. There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”
The Tesla and SpaceX tech boss was responding to a tweet showing the average price of lithium per tonne in the last two decades, which showed a massive increase in prices since 2021.
In the year 2020, Tesla attempted to secure the rights to mine at a Lithium mining facility in Nevada. The deal would fall through eventually but it seems as though Tesla and Musk may be on the hunt for future investment opportunities with mining companies worldwide.
According to the US geological survey, there are also deposits of lithium still present across the USA. With the right land offer and investment from Musk, it may be a possibility that we see further investment into these areas for survey or for mining applications.
From a simple tweet we could see the market for lithium across the USA change. We will be following Elon Musk’s’ journey to seek out lithium mining across the USA and to change the pricing for the North American market.
This post was written by Justin Tidd, Director at Becker Mining Systems! For nearly a half a century, Becker Mining has been at the forefront of industry safety. Becker/SMC is the industry’s leader in increasingly more sophisticated electrical control systems. Most of the major innovations, design features and specialized electrical components have been developed by Becker/SMC.