A lithium EV battery weighs about 1,000 pounds.(a) While there are dozens of variations, such a battery typically contains about 25 pounds of lithium, 30 pounds of cobalt, 60 pounds of nickel, 110 pounds of graphite, 90 pounds of copper,(b) about 400 pounds of steel, aluminum, and various plastic components.(c)
- Lithium brines typically contain less than 0.1% lithium, so that entails some 25,000 pounds of brines to get the 25 pounds of pure lithium.
- Cobalt ore grades average about 0.1%, thus nearly 30,000 pounds of ore.(e)
- Nickel ore grades average about 1%, thus about 6,000 pounds of ore.(f)
- Graphite ore is typically 10%, thus about 1,000 pounds per battery.(g)
- Copper at about 0.6% in the ore, thus about 25,000 pounds of ore per battery.(h)
In total then, acquiring just these five elements to produce the 1,000-pound EV battery requires mining about 90,000 pounds of ore.
From Will the U.S. Mine for Rare Earth and Exotic Minerals? - American Thinker
- The U.S. has only one operating rare-earth mine – Mountain Pass – which lost over two years of production due to a 2016 bankruptcy. Mountain Pass sends their mined ore to China for processing due to high environmental compliance costs – including regulatory minefields and a byzantine quandary of local, state, and federal rules.
From Sustainable shipping: solutions for the future of shipping (solarimpulse.com)"
- Shipping materials will account for around 17% of global CO2 emissions in 2050.
It's almost like 'Environmentalism' was funded by the Chinese to encourage Western companies to ship production to China. Huh.... how odd.... So, how many strip mines does it take to make one Tesla?
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