RE: Mexican govt2 Mar 2023 09:07
Indeed .... If there wasn't a large amount of discovered, known and ready to mine lithium down the road in Mexico I'm not sure Tesla would've decided to build an assembly plant just down the road, Elon saying there's enough Li in the U.S. alone was just indicating how abundant it is globally, whether it is accessible, convertible, available in sufficient economical quantities is entirely different .... and ... it has to be found first.
He mentioned economic (financial & environmental) methods that Tesla has of extracting Lithium from clays & that they would share it ..... and I suspect they already have.
Another reason to believe the Lithium for batteries, which needs a refiner in between the mine and battery manufacturer plant(s) will come from Sonora
Also we need to await & see who/what replaces Ganfeng as a PSC over Bacanora as I assume the removal of them as a PSC means they no longer entirely control Bacanora .... whether it will become a joint control with their involvement or they've exited entirely (& how), replaced by remains to be seen, I suspect it may be the former. How that might effect/impact little ol' us remains to be seen.
I also suspect Tesla will be 'breaking ground' on the car assembly plant approximately 9 months (from their prior plant build parameters in the presentation) before the batteries will be available to install in the 'next gen' cars that will be built there .... So another trigger point to look out for if we don't find out sooner. ... over the next couple of weeks :-)