May 26, 2022

09:05

Fábio Leite – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Elon Musk’s interests go beyond the investments recently announced by the billionaire during his visit to Brazil last week. According to the professor of the University of Virginia, in the United States (USA), David Nemer, the businessman is interested in the lithium existing in the country, the main metal for the production of lithium ion batteries that move electric cars, satellites, portable devices, among others.

The race for leadership in the sale of electric cars is one of the reasons why the South African businessman is interested in making an agreement with Brazil. Currently, there are 95,000 tons of lithium to be explored in the country, making Brazil the seventh largest lithium reserve in the world. The total potential of the chemical element may reach 470 thousand tons, according to data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

On social media, the University of Virginia professor denounced Elon Musk’s interest in Brazilian lithium by commenting on a post by the billionaire celebrating the deal with Brazil. “No, Elon Musk is not excited to be in Brazil for the launch of Starlink, he is excited because he knows that Brazil has 8% of the world’s lithium reserves – about 95,000 tons, making the country the seventh largest known lithium reserve in the world,” the professor pointed out.

Musk’s enthusiasm

In a post on social networks in April, the billionaire already showed enthusiasm for lithium. Lithium ion batteries are powerful in relation to energy density. “The price of lithium has reached insane levels! Tesla may actually have to go into mining and refining, at scale, directly, unless costs improve. There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on earth, but the pace of extraction is slow,” he said. See the tweet in English:

The businessman was in the country on the 20th to sign an agreement with the federal government that promises to monitor the preservation of the Amazon forest – Brazil already has this service – and to offer satellite internet connection to more than 19,000 schools in rural areas of the country. The project involves Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite network, owned by Elon Musk.

Former senator and pre-candidate for federal lawmaker Vanessa Grazziotin (PCdoB) commented on social networks about the agreement signed between the billionaire’s company and the Brazilian government. “Once again, Bolsonaro hands over our country to those who only have personal interests in the exploitation of our natural resources,” she said.

Beyond the cars

The biologist and doctoral student at Inpa’s biology program Lucas Ferrante is against the agreement made by the federal government and says that “changing the Amazon is a very big mistake”. And, that Elon Musk’s interest in Brazilian lithium goes beyond the production of batteries for electric cars. “We need to make it clear that all of Elon’s businesses depend on these rare materials for technology production, such as batteries for electric cars, satellites, space vehicle components, and others.”

“Although it is a global need, the expansion of electric cars, to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, controlling climate change, we need to make it clear that trading the Amazon for the exploitation of this ore to reduce emissions from cars is a very big mistake, because the emissions generated by the degradation of the forest, due to mining, are much higher, not generating a compensatory effect,” Ferrante concluded.