Hyperdrive
China Battery Giant CATL Wins Lithium Project in Race for Materials
- CATL gains exploration rights with successful $135 million bid
- Tesla CEO Musk urges more lithium production to meet EV demand
Vehicle batteries at the CATL headquarters in Fujian Province.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Key Tesla Inc. battery supplier Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. has won exploration rights to a lithium clay deposit in China, as surging demand for electric cars fuels a race to secure supplies of raw materials.
CATL, as the company is better known, bid 865 million yuan ($135 million) for the exploration rights to the deposit, which is estimated to contain about 2.66 million tons of associated lithium metal oxide, it said in a statement Thursday.