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Up to now, Rio Tinto has started cooperation and communication with a number of power battery manufacturers and electric vehicle companies around the world, which will further expand the mining area of the company. According to the Los Angeles Times, Rio Tinto said in a recent statement that it had accidentally discovered rich lithium carbonate resources while digging for gold in the U.S. mineral site boron. It is understood that the boron mine is located in California, the United States, with more than 80 regional mineral resources. According to the plan announced so far, Rio Tinto has started the production of lithium carbonate in the boron area. It is expected to build a small-scale pilot plant with an annual production of 10 tons of lithium carbonate and an investment of about $10 million. Rio Tinto said in the statement that if the pilot production goes smoothly, it will further expand the scale of lithium production, increase the lithium production in California, and improve the quality of its domestic lithium minerals in the United States. It is understood that there is only one domestic lithium producer in the United States, and it is the silverpeak lithium mine area in Nevada operated by albermarle, the world's largest lithium producer. In an interview with Reuters, boldbaatar, chief executive of Rio Tinto's energy and minerals division, said that as the boron mine has been developed for many years, the cost of extracting lithium on this basis would be greatly reduced. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, mining enterprises all over the world are reducing the cost of mining, and using new and progressive technologies to realize waste utilization in waste minerals can effectively reduce the cost of development. Due to the changing global demand, the price of lithium and other metals has soared in the past decade, and the former "waste minerals" are likely to become invaluable. It is understood that once Rio Tinto realizes large-scale production of lithium ore discovered in California, its capacity is expected to be equivalent to that of albermarle's lithium ore in Nevada, the United States. The development of Rio Tinto's new business may rapidly expand its market competitiveness in the United States. "Rio Tinto is expected to become the largest domestic battery grade lithium producer in the United States if the pilot production and large-scale production go smoothly, the supply of lithium will be able to meet the future demand of the United States, and the United States may no longer need to mine new mines," said boldbaatar As the second largest mining enterprise in the world, Rio Tinto plans to invest US $50 million in the next step to build an industrial grade lithium production plant. The annual production of lithium is expected to reach 5000 tons, and it will establish a partnership with downstream battery manufacturers. Rio Tinto said in the statement that once completed, the lithium production plant will be able to provide raw materials for Panasonic and other battery cathode manufacturers in Japan, enough to provide power batteries for 15000 model s electric vehicles. Rio Tinto, as a multinational enterprise with diversified mineral business, currently its main business scope includes coal, iron, copper, gold, diamond, aluminum, etc. Industry insiders pointed out that in recent years, Rio Tinto gradually divested its coal business and entered some low-carbon fields. Expanding its lithium production business is part of its low-carbon transformation. It is understood that Rio Tinto has already started to acquire some lithium assets around the world, and has developed jadar lithium in Serbia. Morgan Stanley, a financial institution, predicts that the global demand for lithium carbonate is expected to double from 2017 by 2025 due to the explosion of the electric vehicle industry. According to the data, Rio Tinto's current lithium production accounts for about 5% of global lithium demand. In fact, with the exception of Rio Tinto, a number of mining giants around the world are targeting the expanding electric vehicle market, with the intention of taking a share. Bloomberg pointed out that driven by the expansion of electric vehicle market, a number of mining enterprises around the world have gradually entered the field of battery metal, while Rio Tinto is the first multinational mining giant involved in lithium production. It is understood that in order to enter the power battery industry chain, Glencore, a multinational mining enterprise, announced plans to increase the production of copper, nickel, cobalt and other battery metals. Meanwhile, BHP, the world's largest mining enterprise, is planning to produce nickel and cathode materials for power batteries. Peter beauven, BHP's chief financial officer, said in the first half of this year that lithium was a relatively less attractive business option for them. Rio Tinto has communicated with a number of global power battery manufacturers and electric vehicle companies, including Chinese battery manufacturers and US electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, according to sources. In a report released in July this year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (bnef) pointed out that with the rapid growth of the use of electric vehicles, the demand for power batteries is also rising. By 2030, the global lithium demand will rise to eight times the current level. Although since 2018, Australia and Chile, as the world's major lithium producers, have been planning to increase production, while the growth rate of global electric vehicle sales has slowed down, and the global lithium market has experienced a short-term oversupply, bnef pointed out that until around 2025, the supply and demand of the global lithium market is likely to reach a balance again. According to Reuters, Rio Tinto's move to expand domestic lithium production in the United States has been supported by the US government as global demand for lithium is still expected to rise. The U.S. Department of the interior once said that lithium is a "strategic mineral" vital to the U.S. economy and national security. The U.S. needs to pay more attention to lithium, which has important applications in the electric vehicle industry and other high-tech equipment manufacturing fields. U.S. President trump has repeatedly stressed that the U.S. rare earth metals and other industries are "strategic minerals.". According to the Los Angeles Times article, Rio Tinto's active exploration of other metal mineral businesses "coincides with the time". Up to now, Rio Tinto has begun to lay out the U.S. rare earth metal industry chain in addition to the lithium industry. In addition, Rio Tinto has also increased copper production in Utah, and plans to expand the supply of American indium to meet the production demand of photovoltaic modules and electronic touch screens in the United States.