Abbott, Musk share stage for Tesla lithium refinery groundbreaking in South Texas

ROBSTOWN — Tesla on Monday marked the start of construction for its proposed lithium refinery in South Texas, furthering its bid for more control over the supply chain for its growing fleet of electric vehicles.

Arriving behind the wheel of a Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared a stage with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other officials in a closed event to celebrate the occasion. As they spoke, more than a dozen pieces of heavy machinery hollered and beeped behind them, preparing the stretch of rural Nueces County land for the $375 million facility.

The facility, which Tesla has said would be the first of its kind in North America, will package and ship battery-grade lithium hydroxide, a key component for the batteries in Tesla's products. While it will not eliminate Tesla’s reliance on other sources, the facility will work toward addressing a future “fundamental choke point” in the advancement of electric vehicles, Musk said.

Musk has said getting a foothold in the lithium refining business would be a “license to print money.” Last year, when the proposal was publicized, at least two lithium industry leaders were skeptical of the automaker's plans, one telling the Caller-Times the lack of details available on the proposal could be a tough sell for investors.

Construction is scheduled to be finished later this year, Musk said, and reach full capacity about a year afterward. The timeline is "extremely fast by normal standards," he added, but true to form for the electric automaker.

Neither Musk nor Abbott took questions from the media after the nearly half-hour speaking event.

The Tesla event comes after a weekend marked by tragedies in the Dallas-area suburb of Allen, where a gunman armed with an AR-15 killed eight people and wounded at least seven others, and Brownsville, where eight people were killed at a bus stop outside a migrant shelter when a man drove his car onto the sidewalk.

During the event, Abbott commended Tesla for its investment in Texas in recent years, including the relocation of its headquarters to Austin and a $1.1 billion manufacturing facility in Travis County. Such efforts go toward making the state self-reliant rather than depending on out-of-state or out-of-country means, he said.

The Republican governor said the Tesla facility was the first of a “wave of jobs” he projected was coming to the Coastal Bend. Up to 250 temporary jobs will be created during the next two years for construction of the facility, and the operation of the plant will create a total of 162 permanent jobs, according to a tax abatement application Tesla submitted to the Robstown Independent School District last year.

The Coastal Bend’s preponderance of oil and gas jobs and industry was a draw for Tesla. The skills individuals hone in those fields are applicable to the kind of work slated for the lithium refinery, said Drew Baglino, Tesla senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, during the presentation.

Aside from its proximity to Austin, the site’s location near the Port of Corpus Christi was a plus given Tesla will be importing concentrates of spodumene, a source of lithium, from across North America, Baglino said.

Musk and company executives touched briefly on the processes of the plant. The process eliminates the use of sulfuric acid and, as a result, eliminates the sodium sulfate byproduct. Musk said the plant’s environmental impact will be negligible — so much so that someone could live inside the plant and have no health defects, he added.

“You could live right in the middle of the refinery and not suffer any impacts,” Musk told the crowd. “(The plant will use) very clean operations.”

Tesla officials thanked members of the Robstown school district, some of whom attended the event. Last year, Tesla approached both Robstown ISD and Nueces County seeking tax abatements for the plant.

While the Robstown school district ultimately provided an abatement under the state’s now-expired Chapter 313 program, Tesla later rescinded its application with Nueces County. The reasoning behind Tesla’s decision was not clear.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Abbott, Musk attend Tesla lithium refinery groundbreaking in South Texas