Exclusive: Tesla Expects Global Shortage of Electric Vehicle Battery Minerals – Sources
by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters) Tesla Inc expects global shortages of nickel, copper and other electric-vehicle battery minerals down the road due to underinvestment in the mining sector, the company’s global supply manager for battery metals told an industry conference on Thursday, according to two sources.
…
The copper industry has suffered from years of underinvestment, and it is now working feverishly to develop new mines and bring fresh supply online as the electrification trend envelops the global economy. Freeport-McMoRan Inc, the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, is expanding in the United States and Indonesia.
Electric cars use twice as much copper as internal combustion engines. So-called smart-home systems – such as Alphabet Inc’s Nest thermostat and Amazon.com Inc’s Alexa personal assistant – will consume about 1.5 million tonnes of copper by 2030, up from 38,000 tonnes today, according to data from consultancy BSRIA.
All that will make the red metal – and other minerals – scarcer commodities, which worries Tesla.
Maryssael added, according to the sources, that Tesla will continue to focus more on nickel, part of a plan by Chief Executive Elon Musk to use less cobalt in battery cathodes. Cobalt is primarily mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and some extraction techniques – especially those using child labor – have made its use deeply unpopular across the battery industry, especially with Musk. READ MORE
