“Our Lithium Refinery ushers in energy independence for North America,” Tesla North America said in the caption of a video announcing that the plant is operational, just two years after breaking ground.

The refinery converts spodumene ore directly into battery-grade lithium hydroxide, in a first-of-its-kind process in North America.

They then use that lithium hydroxide to make their own cathodes at their own cathode factory. So they go from ore->car

[–] ryper@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The title just wasn't specific enough. The summary says "North America's first commercial electrochemical lithium refinery", and Tesla's refinery doesn't seem to be electrochemical, so this is still the first of that specific type.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Ah okay thats gotta be it then. Really bad title.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

They then use that lithium hydroxide to make their own cathodes at their own cathode factory. So they go from ore->car

and only wasting 230,000 gallons a day, polluting the water table with hexavalent chromium, and draining Lake Corpus Christi down to 8%.

GREEN

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Umm… and what’s this then?

Not quite running yet. Typical Musk "ready now" bullshit.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Lol its been running for awhile now.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Just months, and already the local government is trying to shut it down because of toxic heavy metal pollution. Hexavalent chromium.

But it can't run much longer, as typical of US planning and foresight, the water source has dried out for the region and they will have to ration by September.

https://electrek.co/2026/04/21/tesla-lithium-refinery-toxic-metals-wastewater-texas/

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ya, lets see what actually happens with this. Electrek loves to write hit pieces on Tesla, and the last time a report came out saying SpaceX was polluting insane mercury levels, it was because of a misplaced decimal.

If something is amiss, lets see what happens next.

Edit: There is always going to pollution from something like this though, none of these processes are fully clean, its how you handle it that will matter.

Edit: It even says as much in this article (emphasis mine). None of this will ever be fully clean.

While domestic lithium production and extraction will be hugely beneficial for energy independence and resilience, it does come with some significant downsides. Lithium extraction tends to be extremely environmentally costly, posing major risks for local communities and water resources. Of course, homeshoring these processes instead of outsourcing them to poorer countries is not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, it’s ethically a far sounder approach.