I revised my post a moment ago. My comment might seem far fetched, but one should keep in mind that TSLA might pursue matters like Amazon, in regards to branching out into many types of businesses over many years. As we know TSLA also makes solar panels, solar roofing tiles, and EV chargers for the charging of TSLA cars and they make their own lithium batteries for their cars, so why not at some point also refining and mining their own lithium? TSLA also installs their solar power products. Someone on the message board (or maybe on the board for ABML) pointed out that TSLA has patents on extraction of lithium. Since they have such patents it suggests that they intend at some point to extract lithium themselves.
' “We do not have an affordable car. That’s something we will have in the future. But we’ve got to get the cost of batteries down,” Musk said. ... Part of Tesla’s cost savings would come from producing lithium at a site in Nevada near the company’s so-called Gigafactory. Musk told company shareholders on Battery Day that Tesla has secured rights to 10,000 acres in Nevada where it would produce lithium from clay deposits using a process developed by the company. If successful, Tesla would be the first company in the world to commercially produce lithium from clay.
... Tesla said its plan in Nevada involves mixing clay with table salt and then adding water. The company said the process causes a reaction where the salt would leach out with lithium, and the lithium then would be extracted. The leftover clay would be put back in the ground to mitigate environmental damage, much like the current mining industry practice of returning rock to the earth after minerals are extracted. ... “It’s a very sustainable way of obtaining lithium,” said Musk, who did not say where in Nevada the company had obtained the lithium rights or whether development has started.'
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