The facility will push Tesla outside its core focus of building automobiles and into the complex area of lithium refining and processing, a step Musk said was necessary if the auto giant was to meet its ambitious EV sales targets.
“Texas wants to be able to be self-reliant, not dependent upon any hostile foreign nation for what we need. We need lithium,” Texas governor Greg Abbott said at the ceremony. Albemarle plans to build a lithium processing facility in South Carolina that will refine 100,000 tonnes of the metal each year, with construction slated to begin next year and the facility coming online sometime later this decade.
Monday’s announcement was not the first time that Tesla has attempted to venture into lithium production. Musk has urged entrepreneurs to enter the lithium refining business, saying it is like “minting money”.