buffett, musk to spark a lithium boom - usa today

The electrified era of the entire transportation industry, the solar panel revolution and Tesla\'s battery Gigabit plant are burning a battle for the cheapest battery spot.
This will turn lithium into prosperity.
Time mineral and energy investors radar the hottest items.
It is easy to take lithium for granted.
This magical mineral is the backbone of our daily lives, and everything comes out, from the glass on our windows to our mountain of electronics.
While investors have been appreciating the steady growth in demand for this preferred mineral, the number of new applications continues to increase.
Demand for lithium is growing for smartphones, tablets, laptops and other consumer electronics.
But the biggest driver of lithium in the future will be electric cars and household batteries for solar panels.
This puts lithium on the brink of prosperity and supply is no longer taken for granted.
We have not seen such an important market transformation since the shale gas boom.
Lithium has long been used for a variety of mundane purposes, and while there are many, it\'s amazing --
All applications from glass, ceramics and grease to production lines
Development of Industrial processes
For most investors, it is already flying under the radar.
Supply has been largely trying to keep up with the steady growth in demand for lithium, although this mineral is expected to grow with or without a \"battery explosion, tesla\'s gigafactory will trigger an astonishing surge in demand, which will be no less than the boom in shale gas.
Not only will the Gigabit battery change the already attractive lithium demand, but the supplier itself will change to make way for new entrants --
More vision and better technology. -
This will provide some of the best investment opportunities for the industry.
MORE: China has doubled on dirty fuel. Without telling the story of Tesla first, the story of lithium cannot be told. Tesla Motors (TSLA)
A cheaper range of electric vehicles is being developed for release later in the decade, and to achieve that, it is building a $5
The goal of building 500,000 electric vehicles is to reduce battery costs by at least 30%.
Besides, in one-
The plant\'s quarterly capacity may be used in Tesla\'s fixed storage business, which also sells spare batteries for homes, businesses and utilities
All the fuel is lithium.
According to Tesla\'s brainchild, Elon Musk, demand for fixed storage batteries has soared to consider its expansion even before Gigabit batteries are built.
Musk is focusing on \"a complete shift in the world\'s entire energy infrastructure to a completely sustainable zero carbon\", where he is talking about lithium-
Mentality of battery production-blowing scale.
Tesla plans to produce more lithium.
The plant has more ion batteries than the entire global market combined. Lithium —
The lightest and most versatile metal-
It\'s the backbone of the exploding battery market.
Lithium is already a key part of our daily lives, but as batteries become the daily rule in the world\'s new energy sector, demand for lithium is soaring --
We\'re just at the beginning of this curve.
With the highest power generation per unit of weight, battery manufacturers are turning to lithium.
There is nothing more satisfying than hybrid, plug-and-play production.
In hybrid and electric vehicles used by all of Toyota\'s owners (TM), Honda (HMC), Nissan (NSANY)
Renault and Mitsubishi (MSBHY), to Ford (F)
Chevrolet and GM (GM).
Of course, there are Tesla cars.
There will be no Gigabit factory without lithium.
In fact, it will take 15 000 tons of lithium carbonate to start work in a year alone.
With Tesla reducing its lithium content, we\'re on the verge of battery competition --
The production cost of ion batteries reduces the benchmark and increases the cost competition.
New entrants and competitors in the market will respond.
MORE: The main factor affecting the rebound in oil prices Tesla\'s competitors will make one of the biggest battles of the century
The war depends entirely on the supply of lithium.
Tesla\'s biggest competitor is probably your dream (BYD)
Chinese automakers backed by Warren Buffett.
BYD has started making electric buses in the United States and is ambitious around the world.
By the end of this year, BYD should have a 10 GWh battery production capacity and is expected to increase to 34 GWh by 2020 with a new plant in Brazil, Reuters reported.
The same capacity as Tesla.
Other Tesla competitors eager to enter the battery production field will be the iPhone manufacturer Foxconn and LG Chem ).
Samsung has just acquired Magna\'s battery production unit, which is also a hot road.
Credit Suisse said the lithium industry was \"on track to grow significantly\", which could lead to a supply shortage.
As a result, lithium producers will receive considerable revenue throughout the decade.
Even before Tesla\'s Geely Automobile and its competitors entered the market, global lithium consumption doubled in the decade before 2012, mainly because of its
Ion batteries for mobile phones and power tools.
The subsequent official launch of electric vehicles further boosted demand for lithium, according to Fortune magazine, while Tesla\'s gigabit plant is expected to run out of 17% of existing lithium supplies, citing Goldman Sachs.
For investors who have just caught up with the lithium battery revolution, the best way to play this game is to go beyond the traditional lithium battery producers.
In this boom, investors will focus on companies with the lowest market value, sound management and promising deposit prospects.
At present, lithium is not traded as a commodity;
Instead, it is managed through a situation of an oligopolistic monopoly, in which there are three or four major suppliers worldwide who have managed lithium fairly successfully over the past few decades
Because of this, everything is priced according to the contract.
\"The problem is that these three or four major suppliers are responsible for supply and demand, but they are not able to meet the new demand for lithium,\" said Dr.
Dr. Andy RobinsonD.
COO, a chemical and purely energetic mineral (OTMKTS:HMGLF)Tell oil prices. com.
However, as Robinson points out, not all lithium is equal.
It is sold at different prices in different types.
Lithium carbonate, for example, costs about $6,000 per ton for some materials used to make new battery technologies.
However, many new battery technologies
Especially used by Tesla.
Using lithium hydroxide as a raw material, it trades about $2,000 more per ton than lithium carbonate.
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Lithium found in brine or brine is by far the most cost-effective.
According to the doctor
Robinson, \"Salt water is the best way to produce lithium because it\'s too cheap, just as nature does all the effort to render lithium into forms that are easy to extract from the ground.
All you have to do is drill a few wells and pump out the liquid brine.
\"In addition, there are only a few places in the world where lithium is present at a sufficiently high concentration in these salty saline waters, most notably in the Atacama Desert, in the\" Lithium Triangle \"in Bolivia, Argentina and Chile \".
Supply here is threatened by corruption and politics, so it is difficult to take advantage of the rapidly growing demand.
When Tesla\'s gigafactory goes live, everyone is looking for the cost
There is an effective lithium source closer to our home, which brings us back to Nevada where pure energy minerals are the only potential future salt water resources in North America.
The only other salt water resources are located in China, which is much smaller and controlled by Chinese companies.
Lithium is becoming more and more the preferred technology for battery banks, and when tesla\'s gigafactory produces batteries a year later, the winner of this emerging battery boom will be a supporter of lithium, and those who follow the salt waterOilPrice.
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