Tesla Cybertruck Tool Rack Spotted at Lithium Groundbreaking

[RV_]

Texas leads in EV and space and now lithium?

Excerpt:

 

Tesla Lithium Refinery In Texas

During the event, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Department of Energy Undersecretary Kathleen Hogan celebrated Tesla’s latest investment in Texas. The factory is expected to bring more engineering and technical jobs to the state, the city of Corpus Christi, and Nueces County.

“This is a great day for Nueces County. You may remember I was here a month or two ago and I was talkin’ about the way that you’re gonna see a wave of jobs coming to Corpus Christi and Nueces County,” Governor Abbott said.

“This is just one of many projects that will be providing those jobs that will elevate Corpus Christi and Nueces Country, Robstown, the entire area far much more. Congratulations on this big success,” the Texas governor added.

According to Elon Musk, Tesla’s lithium refinery in Texas will be able to produce lithium for about a million vehicles. This factory alone will have the capacity to produce more battery-grade lithium than the production of the entire North American refineries combined.

“As you can see, we’ve got the Earth-moving equipment already here, so we’re going to begin construction immediately. We’re aiming to finish construction next year and then reach hopefully full production a year later,” Musk said.

Musk clarified that Tesla intends to continue using its lithium suppliers, adding that this lithium refinery is preparing to meet the company’s future demands. He also noted that lithium is a very common Earth ore, but that making it battery-grade is industrially intensive. Crucially, Musk added, battery-grade lithium needs to be completely free of any impurities. Otherwise, the battery will degrade more quickly than expected.

“We’ve got a number of innovations we think will be quite effective in the refining of lithium that haven’t been done before,” Elon Musk said.

Turner Caldwell, Sr Manager of Battery Minerals & Metals at Tesla, explained how the process of producing lithium at this Tesla refinery will differ from conventional methods. According to Caldwell, lithium refining is a chemical process that requires heavy use of sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide. The traditional techniques produce byproducts that are of little use later, such as sodium sulfate.

Considering sustainability, Tesla has invented its own methods of refining lithium. Turner Caldwell explained the process in a bit of detail as follows:

“What we are going to be using are much more inert reagents, we’ll be consuming soda ash sodium carbonate very common industrial chemical.

“We’ll be consuming lime, again a very common industrial chemical and it’s a much more direct route that consumes 20% less energy all in.

“It consumes reagents that are 60% less costly and all in the production cost is 30% lower on a unit cost basis.

“But the real key thing here is the byproduct that’s produced is much more inert. It’s basically a mix of sand and limestone.

“And the team here has been working really hard on finding beneficial use opportunities for that sand and limestone to try to feed that into construction materials.

“So that we end up with as a net environmentally very neutral site.”

 

Source with more:

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/18/tesla-cybertruck-tool-rack-spotted-at-lithium-groundbreaking/

 

[GlennWest]

Wonder who has contract for construction. 

[Chalkie]

12 hours ago, GlennWest said:

Wonder who has contract for construction. 

Since the Boring Company does infrastructure I would hazard a guess that they might do part of it. Just a guess though.

[RV_]

22 hours ago, GlennWest said:

Wonder who has contract for construction. 

Don't know. If you find out post back.

[RV_]

10 hours ago, Chalkie said:

Since the Boring Company does infrastructure I would hazard a guess that they might do part of it. Just a guess though.

This is for their Lithium refinery.

He did say "As you can see, we’ve got the Earth-moving equipment already here, so we’re going to begin construction immediately. We’re aiming to finish construction next year and then reach hopefully full production a year later,” Musk said."

However I think he was referring to surface bulldozers etc. I don't think the boring company has had anything to do with the Gigafactories or space Launch site and spacecraft manufacturing plants construction on the Gulf coast.

When/if he does his own Lithium mine/s the boring company may have a part there, or not.

Edited May 21, 2023 by RV_

[Chalkie]

13 hours ago, RV_ said:

This is for their Lithium refinery.

He did say "As you can see, we’ve got the Earth-moving equipment already here, so we’re going to begin construction immediately. We’re aiming to finish construction next year and then reach hopefully full production a year later,” Musk said."

However I think he was referring to surface bulldozers etc. I don't think the boring company has had anything to do with the Gigafactories or space Launch site and spacecraft manufacturing plants construction on the Gulf coast.

When/if he does his own Lithium mine/s the boring company may have a part there, or not.

And you are likely correct, however, the Boring Company has to have a lot of that earthmoving equipment as they don't just dig a tunnel without a lot of surface prep and finishing at the beginning and ends of those tunnels, so that was my thinking as to the possibility.

[RV_]

Could be. We'll see. It will be interesting to watch as the US Lithium mining and refining takes off.

US has huge lithium reserves, but concerns mount over mining

"Geologically abundant

Lithium is often incorrectly labeled as "scarce." Indeed, the metal is abundant geologically across the planet, but its production is concentrated in just a few countries.

Global lithium production is led by Australia, Chile, China and Argentina, which collectively produce over 95% of the mineral. However, the US is home to what are believed to be the world's largest lithium deposits after those in the so-called Lithium Triangle region in South America. The states of Nevada, North Carolina, and California together host an estimated 4% of the world's lithium reserves.

"The US used to be the top lithium producer, but it lost that status right around when lithium began to be more important, first with personal electronics," Thea Riofrancos, an associate professor of political science at Providence College whose research focuses on resource extraction and renewable energy, told DW.

Lithium production moved overseas beginning in the 1970s, and now there is only one active mine left in the country, in Clayton Valley near Silver Peak, Nevada. The site is operated by mining giant Albemarle, which also runs a mine in Chile's Salar de Atacama and is a large stakeholder in the world's largest hard-rock lithium mine in Australia."

https://www.dw.com/en/us-has-huge-lithium-reserves-but-concerns-mount-over-mining/a-64103024#:~:text=However%2C the US is home to what are,an estimated 4% of the world's lithium reserves.

Tesla will probably process the lithium hydroxide refined in the USA into battery cells itself in its US battery factories. In addition to the 4680 pilot line in Fremont, California, Tesla has battery production with Panasonic in Nevada and its own 4680 cell production in Texas. The Giga Mexico, announced in March, is also to be expanded later to include its own cell production.