General Motors (NYSE: GM) recently announced the investment and commercial partnership with Controlled Thermal Resources in order to ascertain local and inexpensive lithium in the United States.
The lithium will be made through an extraction procedure that can essentially come up with smaller physical footprints, no production tailing, and a lesser amount of carbon dioxide emissions in comparison to more standard procedures such as mining or evaporation ponds.
Lithium is a metal that is critical to General Motors' intentions to make more cost-effective, higher mileage electric vehicles. Thus, the partnership between General Motors and Controlled Thermal Resources is foreseen to speed up the taking on of lithium extraction techniques that in turn cause less influence on the environment.
A good amount of General Motors' battery-grade lithium hydroxide and carbonate could potentially arise from Controlled Thermal Resources' Hell's Kitchen Lithium and Power establishment in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, which is held in Imperial, California.
With General Motors' guidance on this particular investment, Controlled Thermal Resources' extraction procedure will ultimately handle and recover from geothermal brine. Given that General Motors plans to invest $35 billion that are dedicated to EVs and autonomous vehicles, General Motors will be the very first company to invest millions of dollars in Controlled Thermal Resources' Hell's Kitchen project.
As the initial investor, General Motors will possess first rights on lithium as conducted by the first stage of the Hell's Kitchen project, which also involves the choice for a multi-year relationship.
"Lithium is critical to battery production today and will only become more important as consumer adoption of EVs increases, and we accelerate towards our all-electric future," said Doug Parks, GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. "By securing and localizing the lithium supply chain in the U.S., we're helping ensure our ability to make powerful, affordable, high mileage EVs while also helping to mitigate environmental impact and bring more low-cost lithium to the market as a whole. GM looks forward to working with CTR, in addition to state and local leaders, in achieving these goals."
Since lithium is so crucial to battery production as well as the moving toward an all-electric future, General Motors has taken advantage of this factor, deciding to collaborate with Controlled Thermal Resources in the process of attaining this goal. Their ultimate objective is to dominate the EV market, and may end up doing so if this collaboration proves to be successful.