Tesla Manager Sees Risk of Battery-Minerals Shortage in Future – by Laura Millan Lombrana and Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – May 2, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Booming demand for electric vehicles and insufficient investment in mines could result in a global shortage of minerals needed to manufacture rechargeable batteries in a few years’ time, a Tesla Inc. representative told U.S. officials and mining executives in a meeting in Washington.

Prices for some of the minerals, which include graphite, cobalt, lithium and nickel, could increase as a result of the high demand and the limited supply, Tesla global supply manager of battery metals Sarah Maryssael said in a closed-door presentation Thursday confirmed by the company.

Investment is important to ensure there is sufficient supply for the industry to grow, she said. Funding for projects to mine these minerals in certain countries has been challenging in the past, Maryssael said at the presentation.

But the industry is now able to source battery minerals responsibly through partnerships with producers in countries such as Chile, Australia and Canada. Reuters reported her comments earlier.

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia are expected to introduce a bill this month designed to streamline the permitting process needed to mine so-called critical materials in the U.S., Sam Runyon, a Manchin spokeswoman, said in an email.

For the rest of this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-02/tesla-manager-sees-risk-of-battery-minerals-shortage-in-future