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Elon Musk eyeing massive payday after scientists discover $1,500,000,000,000 lithium deposit in US state

Home> News> US News

Updated 16:50 22 May 2025 GMT+1Published 10:43 22 May 2025 GMT+1

Elon Musk eyeing massive payday after scientists discover $1,500,000,000,000 lithium deposit in US state

As if the world's richest man needed any more money...

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck

Featured Image Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty

Topics: Tesla, Elon Musk, US News, Science, Money

Poppy Bilderbeck
Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.

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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'.

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.

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Elon Musk could be set to benefit massively from the lithium deposit discovery (ROBIN LEGRAND/AFP via Getty Images)
Elon Musk could be set to benefit massively from the lithium deposit discovery (ROBIN LEGRAND/AFP via Getty Images)

How much lithium is estimated as having been found and how was it formed?

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.

Dubbed the world's biggest lithium reservoir, geologists believe the caldera could contain between 20 to 40 million metric tonnes of lithium.

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But why could Musk be set to benefit?

Tesla could end up benefiting from the discovery (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Tesla could end up benefiting from the discovery (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Why Elon Musk is set to benefit from the lithium deposit discovery

Well, lithium is very important in the production of batteries, central in fact to the lithium-ion batteries that 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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As if he needed any more money (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
As if he needed any more money (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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.

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