Tesla is in town because of graphite
Published: Mon, 01/12/15
I was a speaker at a club meeting the other day, and after I parked my gas guzzling truck, I noticed that there was a Tesla filling station in the parking lot!
See a picture of my local station here:
http://www.globalenergylaboratories.com/tesla-is-in-town-because-of-graphite/
Tesla's electric cars have a range of a few hundred miles, so the company installed recharging stations along interstate routes throughout the United States (and other countries where they have a presence).
This was an eye opener for me.
If Tesla is expanding this fast and selling this many cars I see another “boom” coming.
Not just in electric cars, but in the the required energy storage component...
Batteries.
There are over 6 billion (yes billion with a 'B') cell phones in service right now. And I've been told that there are 1 billion phones made each year.
Each one with a battery – typically a lithium ion battery – to power it.
In the case of the electric Tesla cars, Tesla Motors will be building a “Gigafactory” in the deserts of Nevada to build the batteries that it needs.
Now, lithium ion batteries actually contain more graphite than they do lithium. And graphite has been imported for a long time. There are very few mines at production level in the United States or Canada, with a few coming on line in the next few years.
And Tesla has said that they wish to source their raw battery materials from North America.
I see the future, and the future says that graphite, cobalt, and lithium demand will grow.
Scouting and finding deposits of graphite and those metals could become a big business in the near future.
So, we've started a business line testing for graphite (you need what is called “flake graphite” to get into the battery market), cobalt, and lithium.
Check out our pricing for graphite and the other battery metals and minerals at our website:
http://www.globalenergylaboratories.com/graphite-testing/
Also, listen to the great interview with graphite (and battery) expert Simon Moores of Benchmark Minerals here: http://www.globalenergylaboratories.com/gigafactory-episode-of-energy-metals-and-minerals-podcast/