{"id":1381450,"date":"2023-07-31T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1381450"},"modified":"2023-07-31T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T02:40:00","slug":"exxon-about-to-become-lithium-kingpin-talks-begin-with-tesla-ford-volkswagen-reports-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/exxon-about-to-become-lithium-kingpin-talks-begin-with-tesla-ford-volkswagen-reports-say\/1381450\/","title":{"rendered":"Exxon About To Become &#8216;Lithium Kingpin&#8217;? Talks Begin With\u00a0Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, Reports Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Exxon About To Become &#8216;Lithium Kingpin&#8217;? Talks Begin With\u00a0Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, Reports Say<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>Exxon Mobil Corp. is planning to enter the minerals game by becoming a supplier of lithium to Tesla Inc., Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen AG, and other automakers, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2023-07-31\/exxon-in-talks-with-tesla-ford-volkswagen-on-supplying-lithium?in_source=embedded-checkout-banner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bloomberg<\/a>, citing people familiar with the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The sources said discussions are in the &#8220;early stages and also include battery giants Samsung and SK On Co.&#8221; If the report is correct, Exxon appears to be searching for buyers as it positions itself to capitalize on the electric-vehicle boom amid pressure by ESG funds and the Biden administration to shrink its core oil production and refining businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The people also said Exxon is in talks with lithium producer Albemarle Corp. The company told Bloomberg, &#8220;Given Albemarle&#8217;s leadership role in the market, people routinely want to speak with us \u2014 especially when looking at potential resources.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/2023-07-31_15-12-59.png?itok=Zfa5YN2r\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a conference call with investors last Friday, Exxon&#8217;s CEO Darren Woods broke the silence about the interest in lithium brine mining. He said Exxon wants to extract lithium from underground saltwater, a cheaper and more environmentally friendly method than traditional mining on the surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can bring it on at a much lower cost, and I think, importantly, with much less environmental impact versus open mining that they&#8217;re doing in other parts of the world,&#8221; Woods said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/mine.jpg?itok=TEVCdFfj\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He continued, &#8220;The processing of the brine and extracting the lithium is very consistent with a lot of the things that we do in our refineries and chemical plants and, in fact, in some of our upstream operations.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/this-arkansas-town-could-become-the-epicenter-of-a-u-s-lithium-boom-54ad7306\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u00a0reported earlier this month that Exxon plans &#8220;to build one of the world&#8217;s largest lithium processing facilities&#8221; in Arkansas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Exxon might be an emerging player in the lithium field as the US rushes to secure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/commodities\/china-fires-first-warning-shot-metal-export-controls-traders-scramble-gallium\">critical mineral supply chains amid souring relations with China<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Mon, 07\/31\/2023 &#8211; 18:40<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/exxon-about-become-lithium-kingpin\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/exxon-about-become-lithium-kingpin<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exxon About To Become &#8216;Lithium Kingpin&#8217;? Talks Begin With\u00a0Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, Reports Say Exxon Mobil Corp. is planning to enter the minerals game by becoming&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1381450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-5Nns","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}