Musk says Tesla may get into lithium business as prices soared nearly 490% since last year
“Price of lithium has gone to insane levels,” Musk tweeted. “There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”
• Prices of lithium have jumped nearly 490% since last year
• US produces less than 2% of lithium, although it has about 4% of global reserves
Elon Musk on Friday tweeted Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) may get into the lithium mining and refining business directly at scale as the prices of the metal, a key component in manufacturing batteries, have risen extraordinarily high.
“Price of lithium has gone to insane levels,” Musk tweeted. “There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”
The Tesla boss responded to a tweet showing the average price of lithium per tonne from the last two decades, which showed a 1653% jump in prices since 2012.