According to news agency , a closed conference was held in Washington recently with the participation of representatives of the US government, legislators, lawyers, mining companies and a number of manufacturers. From the government, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Energy read the reports. What was it about? The answer to this question can be a leak about the report of one of the key managers of Tesla. Sarah Maryssael, Global Purchasing Manager for Tesls EV Batteries Raw Materials, said the company is in a critical battery mineral shortage zone.
To make batteries, Tesla, like other companies in this market, buys copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium and other minerals. Shortcomings in planning and underfunding in the extraction of raw materials led to the fact that the market began to feel a breath of scarcity. A Tesla spokeswoman, by the way, told reporters that we are talking about a potential danger, and not an accomplished event. But this only emphasizes the importance of measures to prevent danger.
Surprisingly, copper was also among the scarce minerals, and not just cobalt and lithium. Over the past decades, many mines for the extraction of this metal have been closed in the United States. Meanwhile, it takes twice as much copper to make an electric car as it does to make a car with an internal combustion engine. No less surprising is another fact, although it is quite predictable. According to reports from BSRIA analysts, smart home devices such as Alphabet Nest thermostats or Amazon Alexa assistants will become significant consumers of copper. For example, if today it takes 38 tons of copper to produce smart devices, then in just 000 years they will need 10 million tons of this metal.
In the US, according to a source, mining companies began feverishly to restore copper production. Production has also intensified at foreign fields, in particular in Indonesia, which Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has taken up. The extraction of cobalt is mainly the prerogative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the mineral is mined, including through child labor. Elon Musk, by the way, calls this the main reason why Tesla prefers to use nickel rather than cobalt in batteries.
Are there prospects to overcome the danger of shortages? In addition to the deployment of mines in the United States, many hopes are placed on Australia. Last year, Australia entered into a preliminary agreement with the United States to jointly develop deposits of US-critical minerals. This project promises to eliminate or mitigate the danger of a shortage of raw materials for the manufacture of batteries and electronics.
Source: 3dnews.ru