Elon Musk spoke about the need for securing refined lithium for EV batteries on Tesla's earnings call with investors on April 23. Addressing the shortage in refining capacity for the metal, Musk urged entrepreneurs to take up the cause.
"The choke point is much more on refining capacity than it is on mining. Lithium is actually is very common throughout the world, including in the US, it's much more a question of where is the refining capacity and can the refining capacity keep up, " Musk said on Tesla's earnings call.
The Tesla CEO mentioned the EV giant's plan to build a lithium refinery near Corpus Christi, Texas, work on the project is likely to start in May 2023.
Musk urged entrepreneurs to shift their focus from creating 'picture sharing apps' to getting into 'heavy industry' such as lithium refining. "Like, instead of making a picture sharing app, please refine lithium. Mining and refining, heavy industry, come on," Musk said.
As of today, China plays an outsize role in battery production, accounting for 44 percent of all lithium refining globally according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
US which is pushing for the adoption of electric vehicles under the Biden regime, is looking to increase its lithium refining capacity.
"We currently in the US produce around 20,000 tons of lithium hydroxide refined in the US. We think we need over 700,000 by the second half of this decade. So, 35 times more," Keith Phillips, CEO of Piedmont Lithium, whose customers include Tesla, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.
Mining projects last about a decade to complete and refineries take about two years to bring online, Yahoo Finance said in its report.
Chile has the world’s largest lithium reserves at 9.2 million metric tonnes (mmt). Australia ranks second with 5.7 mmt. It is followed by Argentina (2.2 mmt), China (1.5 mmt), and USA in that order.
Earlier in February 2023, lithium deposits were found for the first time ever in India. The 5.9 million tonnes of Lithium inferred resources were discovered in the Salal-Haimana area of Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Geological Survey of India.