[News] Musk addresses the lithium strategy promoted by Boric: "The mineral is very common, what matters is the refining capacity"

[[Ty]M@g0k1l3r]

The Tesla owner has previously noted that lithium processing "is a very lucrative business" but that there is limited global capacity to deliver high-purity chemicals for making batteries.

Various reactions have been generated by the lithium strategy presented by the Government of President Boric this Thursday.

One of these was that of the South African tycoon, Elon Musk, who stated that the importance of this mineral lies in "its refining capacity", which is used to make batteries. It was on Twitter that the Tesla owner responded to a post made by the "Unusual Whales" account. "Chile will nationalize the country's lithium industry, the world's second-largest producer of a metal essential in electric vehicle batteries, to boost its economy and protect its environment."

To this, Musk noted: "Lithium ore is very common all over the Earth. It's the refining capacity that matters." This is not the first time that a magnate has referred to lithium mining.

Previously, he addressed the need to expand the refining of this resource in the world to deliver ultra-purity hydroxide and carbonate, which are then used for the production of vehicle batteries.

 

 

As the owner of a car manufacturer, he stated that "restrictions on the availability of lithium, which have pushed prices up, are not the result of a shortage of raw materials, but of the limited global capacity to deliver such chemicals," he said. Bloomberg. "Refining is quite difficult and it's kind of hard to scale because it requires a huge amount of machinery," he added.

Thus, as for Elon Musk, said production is a very lucrative business and would give great returns to whoever carries it out:

"You cannot lose it, it is a license to print money," he said.

According to figures provided by Bloomberg, Chile would have a capacity of 330,427 metric tons of refined lithium by 2025, ranking second in the world - only behind China (1,083,111 tons) - in the production of resources. A study entitled "Situation of the lithium industry" by Pablo Morales and available at the Library of National Congress, indicates that the country, despite "having only 7% of the reserves" of this mineral "has expanded its position in industry However, it has few processing capacities Most of the mineral extracted in Chile is exported to China (41%), South Korea (31%) and Japan (11%) for refining.

 

https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2023/04/21/1092978/musk-estrategia-litio-gobierno-tesla.html