Why Elon Musk may own a lithium mine before owning Twitter – The National

Why Elon Musk may own a lithium mine before owning Twitter – The National

Elon Musk may be in the news for his interest in Twitter, but it is his tweet about lithium that may prove the most consequential, as the price for the rare metal surges.

"Price of lithium has gone to insane levels! Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve," the Tesla founder tweeted this month.

There are no further reported developments on Tesla's plans for lithium mining. But as Mr Musk pointed out, despite being called a rare metal lithium is not scarce. It is, however, used extensively in the batteries that underpin electrification and demand is far outpacing supply.