As four southwestern states vie to be selected as the
site of Tesla Motor's announced 'Gigafactory' , a 1000-acre factory for lithium-ion batteries projected to cost $5 billion and support 6500 local jobs, Bloomberg reported that the material commonly used for the anode of those batteries -
graphite - will soon be in short supply , ironically because of environmental issues. Graphite mining and processing has produced substantial air and water pollution in China, leading authorities to close dozens of mines and processing plants in Shandong province. (China currently produces the
vast majority of the world's supply of natural graphite; other countries, including Australia and Canada, could potentially ramp up to take up a portion of the slack). Li-on batteries are used in smartphones, laptops, and many other electronic gadgets, as well has electric and hybrid vehicles. However, the sheer size of electric vehicle batteries makes Tesla potentially one of the largest consumers of the world's natural graphite production; some analysts estimate that the opening of the Tesla gigafactory will double the world's demand for graphite. Tesla CEO
Elon Musk quickly tweeted that the Bloomberg story was 'beyond ridiculous' and promised to post an environmental impact blog. It's been a week, we're still waiting for the blog.
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graphite - will soon be in short supply , ironically because of environmental issues. Graphite mining and processing has produced substantial air and water pollution in China, leading authorities to close dozens of mines and processing plants in Shandong province. (China currently produces the
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