Elon Musk Could Pair Up With One Of These Lithium Miners: Cypress Development Or Lithium Americas
Apr. 11, 2022 11:52 AMALB, AMRZF, HXLTF
Summary
Elon Musk comments on lithium and how Tesla might enter "mining and refining directly at scale".
Cypress Development and Lithium Americas are top logical contenders to pair up with.
Cypress buys out neighbor's lithium project and announced favorable pilot plant results. In other news --- Water rights are fully secured.
What impact will this have on Cypress Development's resources and NPV?
If Albemarle is the king of Clayton Valley, then Cypress is the Prince; The prince shall have his day.
Elon Musk Visits Germany
Maja Hitij/Getty Images News
Elon Musk made some rather interesting comments today via Twitter (TWTR) in reference to Tesla (TSLA) possibility entering the lithium market AND the lithium refining market.
Elon Musk comments on lithium (Yellow highlights are the authors) (Elon Musk via Twitter)
Now of course the most logical choices are lithium projects near the Gigafactory near Reno, Nevada. That leaves us with a few contenders for Musk to possibly buyout or team up with in some fashion. Remember the projects have to have water rights and be somewhat close to receiving permits or already have them.
I'm also excluding any that have existing partnerships and / or problems with permits due to endangered plants. This excludes various contenders. I am only going to list the most logical choices. This leaves us with Cypress Development (OTCQB:CYDVF) and Lithium Americas (NYSE:LAC).
Rumors of Tesla Trying to Buy Cypress Development
First, we need to remember that Elon Musk had previously commented during the 2019 shareholders meeting about getting into lithium:
Might get into the business of mining minerals used in electric vehicle batteries. - Elon Musk
Then in 2020, Tesla was rumored to have been looking to acquire Cypress Development but the deal was never consummated. Per Businessinsider.com:
Tesla was recently holding acquisition talks with a Nevada-based mining company to advance its ambitious plan to source lithium from clay deposits in the US, but the electric-car company was unable to reach a deal and has since secured the rights needed to legally mine the raw material on its own in the state, Bloomberg's Yvonne Yue Li and David Stringer reported Monday.
The mining of lithium is a key part of Elon Musk's vision for Tesla's future manufacturing process as the Tesla CEO looks to scale up his supply chain in pursuit of less-expensive and longer-lasting batteries. Musk has said that doing so will give the company a competitive advantage as electric cars become increasingly common. He also has said it will cut costs and enable a $25,000 Tesla to be built and sold.
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