General Discussion Topics, page-34930

That's realy strange Split. Hear that the first time that the Texas refinery will convert carbonate to hydroxid.

Maybe a missasumption? What sense would make this? If that is a future strategy it's a far and pretty adventurous strategy. But still I see no sense in it.

Just take the(our) spod and convert it to Hydroxid is much easier.

By the way knows someone the capacity of the refinery? 8000tpa is the end for now and working to capacity?

Just to ad when Elon speaks about Lithium he uses sometimes the phrase that lithium is abundant in nature.
Thats true from a geologycal view but not the point,
the really point is you need to economically terms extractable lithium and however that is rare especially for emerging demand. Elon knows that too and bc of that is hardly a way arround Sayona and it becomes with every day crystal clearer.

"The upcoming conversion/refining plant will turn hard rock spodumene ore into lithium hydroxide, which is used directly in battery cells. It should be noted that prior to Tesla’s battery efforts, this process has traditionally been performed in China using spodumene that’s sourced from Australia. In its report, Benchmark Minerals noted that Tesla will be using a hydrometallurgical process to turn its spodumene ore into lithium hydroxide, effectively eliminating the use of sulphuric acid. This process, however, remains untested in the commercial scale."

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-lithium-hydroxide-facility-cybertruck-gigafactory-texas/