The maximum and ambitious allocation in the United States to free it from the maximum overall reliance on lithium imports to make batteries has gained a stir with a long-term agreement to obtain an intermediate product for Tesla.
Lithium is thought to be the most efficient battery metal, and its production will want to increase especially in the coming years so that any kind of energy revolution occurs, either in a vehicle or to build garage systems to keep the electrical energy running. reserves for renewable energy intermitente. no supply electricity. Think wind turbines on windless days or solar panels when the sun rarely shines much.
Tesla is building its own batteries. He recently celebrated his Battery Day to talk about his progress.
Piedmont Lithium announced this week that it reached an agreement to sell a lithium intermediate product called spodumene to Tesla for five years at a constant price, which is used to make lithium hydroxide and is the product used in the production of batteries.
Tim McKenna, director of investor relations and the Piedmont government, said Tesla’s wishes would consume about a third of the mine’s production, which is being developed on two hundred acres in Gaston County, North Carolina, in the general Charlotte area.
Piedmont plans to build a chemical plant near the mine that would convert the spodumen concentrate into lithium hydroxide, a task that will take about $300 million, McKenna said, but Tesla didn’t have to wait for that, according to McKenna. They need to pass faster,” he says.
The spodum would be produced through a concentrator in the mine. The concentrators take the raw ore and fulfill its call: they transform the ore into an unfinished product with a higher steel content than the one that came out of the ground.
According to a list issued through Piedmont, there is an option in the five-year agreement that would allow Tesla to accumulate the amounts to be given to it. Concentrated deliveries are expected to begin between July 2022 and July 2023.
The mine is not yet in operation, progression paints are being made on site.
McKenna said Piedmont raised the budget in June, but that “to do what we want to do, we’ll have to raise several hundred million dollars to put it all together, and that’s declining right now. “
Lithium production in the United States is small enough that the line corresponding to the knowledge provided through the U. S. Mine Office will not be able to do so. But it’s not the first time It is indexed as “W” for retention. This occurs when the number is so small or so concentrated, or that it reveals it would necessarily be a disclosure of information unique to a company. And the report goes on to say that lithium produced in the United States comes from a Nevada company that extracts it from brine.
While projections show that battery use is expanding and lithium demand is expanding at the same time, recent years have been bearish for metal. Outside the United States, global lithium production declined by 19% in 2019 compared to 2018. “in reaction to lithium production above consumption and lower lithium costs,” the report says. BuMines’ knowledge shows that battery-grade lithium carbonate costs average $15,000 consistent with the metric ton in 2017, emerging at $17,000 in 2018 and falling to $13,000 last year.
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