/biz/ - Business & Finance

In terms of lithium in mud/clay. Lithium in these types of deposits has very low Li content and you are going to need one hell of a conversion process, at I suspect at quite a large cost, to move the grades upwards to 6% spodumene equivalent input (and you are going to have to process a lot of clay for this stage to get there too btw), before putting it into the equivalent roasting process to produce lithium chemicals. Noting costs around removing deleterious elements. And quality matters in producing batteries is my point, especially if seeking to produce long range batteries.

Musk is playing a game of bluff here IMO by implying I will do 'A' if you don't give me 'B' inputs at an acceptable price. Bluntly, Tesla has entered into contracts/MOUs with hard rock players in the past so I suspect this is gamemanship by him here. Time will tell where he gets his inputs from I guess.