Tesla share value plummets as tech shares take a hit
Since Tesla’s share peak in January 2021, the company has seen its share price plummet by some 33% – and that’s even after buying £1.5 billion Bitcoin to add to the balance sheet. Maybe this is partly why?
Irony?
There’s an irony here – of sorts. It is a well known fact that Bitcoin mining uses a disproportionate amount of energy to create the digital cryptocurrency, and this energy may even, and most likely is, produced using unclean and environmentally unfriendly fossils fuels. There is such a thing as climate change.
And yet here is a company renowned for producing a ‘green’ efficient and less polluting product for the world… the electric car, and yet uses an inefficient ‘vehicle‘ to help achieve these goals. Odd… or have I got it wrong – just saying.
Tesla is reported to have become a ‘technical’ partner in a nickel mine – a resource required for lithium-ion batteries needed for electric vehicles
The decision comes amid growing concerns about future supplies of nickel.
‘Nickel is our biggest concern for scaling lithium-ion cell production,‘ Elon Musk recently tweeted.
Where is nickel mined?
Nickel is mined mostly in Russia, Canada, New Caledonia and Indonesia and primarily used to make stainless steel. But the growth in electric vehicles has added a new source of demand for the metal.
New Caledonia is the world’s fourth largest nickel producer, which has seen a 26% jump in prices during the past year.
The extraction of nickel, particularly with the the use fossil fuels, comes at an environmental and health cost and mines have been criticised.
Will Elon Musk help clean up the energy used to produce the nickel and maybe even Bitcoin too? He has set-up a prize fund for the invention of a carbon collection system. Could this help make mines become more environmentally friendly.
Then there is the health and safety element of mining too.
Let’s see where this goes?
Some facts about Nickel
- Nickel has high electrical and thermal conductivity.
- The melting point of nickel is 1455 °C (2651 °F).
- Nickel is a chemical element with the symbol Ni and atomic number 28.
- It is a silvery white metal with a slight golden tinge.
And lithium batteries can’t live without it!