Heres my take, now given that different clays present different levels of difficulty in giving up any lithium they contain lets give Elon the benefit of the doubt and say that his acreage has got the most amenable clay. So next he has to collect that clay and mix it with water and salt in a big slurry to allow the saline to extract the lithium. Then the slurry must settle so that the clay can be removed from what is now lithium enhanced brine. Then Elon will have to engage in direct extraction.
So at this stage Elon has put Tesla up front with Lake only LKE doesn't have to do that initial step of creating the slurry as we start with brine we don't have to create it.
Why do I think this? Its because on Battery day Elon said that the big savings would be in transporting the Lithium a short distance rather than say the savings would occur due to the extraction process.
Anyhow Tesla will go to direct extraction as LKE is doing. Brine is about half the cost of hard rock mining and that's where Tesla gets their Lithium hard rock mines in Western Australia
Table salt
Add LKE (ASX) to my watchlist
 (20min delay)
|
|||||
|
Last
5.5¢ |
Change
-0.003(5.17%) |
Mkt cap ! $91.26M | |||
| Open | High | Low | Value | Volume |
| 5.8¢ | 5.9¢ | 5.5¢ | $272.1K | 4.762M |
Buyers (Bids)
| No. | Vol. | Price($) |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | 991729 | 5.5¢ |
Sellers (Offers)
| Price($) | Vol. | No. |
|---|---|---|
| 5.6¢ | 334500 | 3 |
View Market Depth
| Last trade - 16.10pm 26/04/2024 (20 minute delay) ? |
|
|||||
|
Last
5.5¢ |
Change
-0.003 ( 4.35 %) |
||||
| Open | High | Low | Volume | ||
| 5.8¢ | 5.9¢ | 5.5¢ | 1618036 | ||
| Last updated 15.59pm 26/04/2024 ? | |||||
| LKE (ASX) Chart |