Lithium Exploration Group Plans to Address Future Shortage in Supply of Lithium

Tesla has announced plans to build a gigafactory, a massive battery plant which will bring with it supply constraints in the lithium markets. With demand for lithium-ion batteries expected to grow in the coming years, Lithium Exploration Group is working hard to be in a position to supply part of this demand.

To address the supply issue, Tesla is scouting sites for the gigafactory to cut their production costs by 30 percent. "We're actually quite comfortable that we're heading toward a final agreement sometime later this year," stated JB Straubel, Tesla's Chief Technology Officer, on their earnings call. "Groundbreaking could begin as early as next month," said Elon Musk. Tesla has named Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas as possible factory sites and said it will break ground in at least two of these states.

Elon Musk has stated that he believes that more than 50% of all vehicles sold by 2030 will be fully electric. If his prediction is correct, this will equate to 75 million vehicles requiring nearly 3,000,000 tons of lithium per year. The worldwide production of lithium in 2013 was around 160,000 tons.

"We have two active facilities that are bringing brine water in every single day. We have already begun navigating the regulatory requirements to produce minerals from these brines; we are merely waiting for the field testing data from our Ultrasonic Technology to determine the optimal salinity level for the unit so that we can move to bench scale testing and begin small production batches of lithium carbonate," commented CEO Alex Walsh. "We have known that there is lithium in the Alberta brine for years; the only questions are: how much can we capture and at what price is it profitable to produce. We believe our technology will be game-changing as it pertains to those metrics."

About Lithium Exploration Group
Lithium Exploration Group is a US-based exploration and development company focused on the acquisition and development potential of lithium brines and other precious metals that demonstrate high probability for near-term production. Currently the company is focused on its Western Canada lithium assets, testing its Ultrasonic Generator Technology and the acquisition of oil and gas related assets in Western Canada. Lithium Exploration Group is a fully reporting company traded on the OTCQB under the symbol LEXG.