Elon Musk looks at Argentina and wants the lithium found today in the Andes Mountains to reach the batteries of his Tesla cars. The eccentric American businessman has as one of his main suppliers a company that has been operating in the country for more than two decades and now plans to double its production in Catamarca to supply, among others, the most valuable automaker in the world.

A few days ago, representatives of Tesla were in that province together with officials and directors of Livent, a US-owned mining company that exploits the Salar del Hombre Muerto deposit (Catamarca) and produces lithium carbonate there, one of the main inputs used in electric car batteries.

In that meeting, the mining company confirmed an investment of US$1.1 billion, with the plan to triple its activity in the country. Currently, the company, which has its offices in Philadelphia and operates plants in the United States, China, England and India, produces 20,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year and projects three stages of expansion to reach 60,000 tons per year by the end of 2025.

In 2020, the firm began expanding its facilities to add, in a first stage, capacity for 10,000 tons per year, and confirmed that in June it will begin work on a new phase to be able to produce an additional 10,000 tons per year. In turn, in the province they confirmed that the company has already begun the steps to build a new exploitation block -scheduled for 2025- that will add another 20,000 tons of calcium carbonate.

“They confirmed that they are going to generate the requests for permits and authorizations for this exploitation,” Marcelo Murúa, Minister of Mining of Catamarca, told LA NACION.

Tesla, the electric vehicle company founded by Elon Musk, enters that plan. The firm has Livent as one of its suppliers and is committed to being one of the main clients of its increased lithium production in Catamarca.

Another of the automakers that will buy the mineral produced will be the German BMW, which in 2021 signed a contract with the US mining company for US$330 million to secure part of the local mineral. In this way, Argentina will be the company’s second global supplier of lithium, behind Australia.

“Lithium production in Argentina comes from more than 25 years ago. It was intended for a multitude of uses, from ceramics to medicinal matters, and in recent years it has increased due to electromobility and how this sector has mutated towards more sustainable systems. A new market was added, which is that of batteries,” said Murúa.

Livent is the first mining company to operate in Catamarca, and achieved a 45.9% increase in its turnover in 2021, to reach US$420.4 million (its annual profit was US$600,000). According to the company, the plan is to double its production capacity in the country by the end of 2023.

In addition, there are two projects to exploit lithium in Catamarca, which are under construction. One is developed by the company Galaxy Lithium, of Australian origin, and the other is in charge of Liex, a subsidiary in the country of the Chinese firm Zinjin Mining Group (some time ago it acquired the Canadian company Neo Lithium), which announced this year an investment of US$380 million for the construction of its lithium carbonate processing plant.