Nigeria turns down Elon Musk’s Telsa to mine lithium

Nigeria turns down Elon Musk’s Telsa to mine lithium in the country

The world richest man has been denied the opportunity for his company Telsa to mine lithium in Nigeria. A lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery is an advanced battery technology for Elon Musk’s Telsa electric cars .

“In August, Nigeria’s minister of mines and steel development, Olamilekan Adegbite, said the country had rejected Tesla Inc’s request to mine lithium, unless the company were to situate a battery-making factory in the West African nation.”

According to Nigerian government “ that instead of exporting these mineral resources, foreign investors should rather be encouraged to cite manufacturing plants in the country, use the resources as raw materials to produce within the country to create jobs and grow the nation’ gross domestic product (GDP). The Minister of Mines and Steel Development,  Olamilekan Adegbite, who spoke at a summit in Abuja tagged: “Leveraging Future Minerals for Sustainable Development, said Adegbite said global focus has shifted to developing a low-carbon economy that would utilise future minerals.”

Lithium is expected to triple in demand by 2040, according to the World Bank. The price of a tonne of lithium jumped from about $6,000 in 2020 to over $78,000 in 2022. High-grade lithium was discovered in Nigeria in 2019. The volume of lithium in Nigeria is up to 50 metric tons annually.