Getting ready to feed Tesla's NV need for lithium?
Bill O'Driscoll, RGJ 3:31 p.m. PDT October 8, 2014
(Photo: Marilyn Newton/RGJ )
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A Canadian firm took a major step Wednesday toward production of lithium in Nevada that could be timed with the planned 2017 opening of Tesla Motors' $5 billion lithium ion battery gigafactory east of Sparks.
Officials of Western Lithium Corp., unveiled a new hectorite clay processing plant off Interstate 80 in Fernley using ore from the company's Kings River lithium mine north of Winnemucca. The plant will employ 12 to 15 people when it begins operations in the next few weeks.
The hectorite clay will be sold as a lubricant in the fast-growing oil and natural gas drilling industry, officials said.
But that same ore also contains lithium, and the company's mine in northern Humboldt County is estimated to be the fifth-largest lithium deposit in the world and the largest in the U.S.
Western Lithium officials, speaking at a ceremonial opening of the hectorite clay processing plant, said the company last month began a demonstration lithium extraction project in Germany and is seeking $250 million in investment to develop a lithium processing plant at the Nevada mine site with a goal of opening by 2017.
"There is a tremendous opportunity to capture some business synergies in Nevada with all the interest coming in now," said Jay Chmelauskas, CEO of Vancouver, B.C.-based Western Lithium Corp, which has offices in Reno.
"We're very active now with potential customers," he said, but declined to identify electric car maker Tesla among them. "Our lithium plant has current estimates of 26,000 tons of lithium carbonate a year for 20 years. That production matches the amount of lithium carbonate that would be needed by a company like Tesla Motors."
Speaking to two dozen business and political leaders and with a mountain of 3,000 tons of hectorite clay behind him, Chmelauskas said Nevada is blessed to have an abundance of lithium-loaded ore.
"There is a potential market for Tesla 10 miles from where I'm standing," he said of Tesla's site for its mammoth gigafactory, which will employ up to 6,500 people in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center midway between Reno and Fernley.
"We see a tremendous collaboration, opportunities, with lithium. Now we're ready for some bold action," Chmelauskas said. "With the technology we're bringing to Nevada, that will spur innovation. You'll see more jobs come out of the lithium industry."
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