Poppy Bilderbeck
Elon Musk's Tesla could be set to be benefit massively after a lithium deposit suspected of being the world's largest has been discovered in the US.
The Tesla founder stands as the current richest man in the world, as per Forbes, with a net worth of a staggering $416 billion so, if anyone needs even more money, it's certainly not him.
Alas, life's not fair. And so Musk is set to come into even more cash after one of the largest lithium deposits ever identified has been discovered in the US - lithium often referred to as 'white gold'.
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The McDermitt Caldera is located in southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada. It measures a whopping 45 by 35 kilometers and was formed 16.4 million years ago in the aftermath of a catastrophic volcanic eruption.
A lake then pooled inside the caldera - 'a large depression formed when a volcano erupts and collapses,' as per the National Geographic - alongside the layers of minerals and volcanic ash and the sediments evolved into lithium-bearing clay minerals.
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Dubbed the world's biggest lithium reservoir, geologists believe the caldera could contain between 20 to 40 million metric tonnes of lithium.
But why could Musk be set to benefit?
Well, lithium is very important in the production of batteries, central in fact to the lithium-ion batteries than power smartphones to laptops and even crucial in electric vehicles - which every man and his dog seems to be trying to push for in a bid to create a more environmentally friendly world.
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And who should be the CEO of a car and clean energy company - why Musk with Tesla of course.
The McDermitt Caldera may potentially have enough lithium to create up to 600 million electric vehicles and given it was found in the US, well it's good news for American EV manufacturers - particularly amid Trump's tariffs.
Rather than relying on lithium imports, the McDermitt Caldera could see Tesla supplied with lithium for its batteries and subsequently electric vehicles from here in the US - Tesla with its own in-house lithium refinery based in Texas.
And if Tesla gets something out of the lithium deposit discovery? Well, that lines the pockets of Musk too - the CEO having said on May 20 he's committed to leading the company for the next five years.
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During Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, he said he wants to remain having 'sufficient voting control' within the company, although argued 'it's not a money thing', but 'a reasonable control thing of the future of the company'.
However, given his 12.8 percent stake in Tesla, as of 2024, per Investopedia, if the company does get access to the recently discovered lithium deposit, it will ultimately be Musk who's reaping most of the rewards.