Tesla Patent Application = Process To Extract Lithium From Clay Minerals
The patent is related to the acid-free saline lithium extraction process, which Elon Musk talked about during Battery Day in September, 2020.
The patent is related to the acid-free saline lithium extraction process, which Elon Musk talked about during Battery Day in September, 2020.
As we previously reported, Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group made an announcement at the end of December that its subsidiary, Yahua Lithium, signed a 5-year lithium supply agreement with Tesla. The contract’s value is reported to be a range of $630-880 million. Yahual Lithium will provide battery-grade lithium hydroxide to Tesla from 2021 through 2025. Here’s a bit more information and commentary on that deal.
Standard Lithium is a lithium extraction startup pursuing an unconventional method of getting lithium for EV batteries. Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented in response to a CleanTechnica article last year that the approach seemed to have some promise.
Following some of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s comments regarding battery production during the quarterly Tesla conference call for shareholders last week, I decided to have two long conversations with Howard Klein and Rodney Hooper of RK Equity about the EV battery production and mining industries.
China is charging full speed ahead into electric vehicles, on track to sell over 2 million electric vehicles this year, from 1.1 million in 2018. The rapid growth has been driven partly by policy, but increasingly by consumer demand. In the 3rd and final part of this series (check out part one and part two, if you missed them), we look at the ramp up in EV production and battery supply. Will production capacity be able to keep pace with the rapid growth in EV demand?