I watched it all. Like being back in school but a few things jumped out at me, and I'd welcome anyone else's thoughts on the video or on my observations.

So the video accepts TSLA's claim that they have secured rights to thousands of acres of Nevada lithium clay and plan to make their own lithium hydroxide, using common salt to extract the lithium. The video explains that, depending on where the lithium is located in the lithium clay column, there could be two potential salt extraction processes.

If the lithium were to be contained in the framework level (i.e. it is a part of the clay crystal structure), the salt extraction process would be highly energy intensive as the clay would have to be heated to a very high temperature. 

If the lithium were to be contained in the interlayer (i.e. more freely floating in the clay), the salt extraction process would have to rely on new technology not yet used commercially. In addition, for this to be feasible, the clay deposit would need to be very homogenous because variance would require different chemistry. This process would require far less energy because they'd just need to boil water as opposed to heat clay to 1,000 degrees.

So I'm listening to this and asking myself really, TSLA is going to take on all of this risk associated with developing new extraction processes, one of which is high energy so not that environmentally friendly, and one depending on technical components that have not yet been fully developed, all so that they can produce in-house just one of the metals required for batteries? What about a nickel mine, or a copper mine, or a graphite mine or a cobalt mine? 

I guess what I'm getting at is I'm not buying it. If lithium was all that is required, then maybe. It makes sense to me that they would partner or otherwise secure offtake from existing or soon to be existing mines. 

This brings me to another observation. The video highlights that TSLA's gigafactory in Texas is set up to process spodumene from hard rock, and it makes sense that PLL's offtake would go there. But it would take significant retooling to or a seperate facility to integrate the hydroxide produced from clay into batteries. It speculates that TSLA therefore may very well be considering a sperate facility at their clay lithium mine.

But if they're not really going to go through the 7-10 year process of setting up their own mine and instead were to partner with a soon to be producing clay mine, who might that be? As some on this board and other boards have noted, LAC has submitted plans for a battery production plant on their property at Thacker Pass. Perhaps just forward thinking on their part as a blue sky just in case, but isn't it nice to speculate about this potential partnership?

Oh, and might Elon have overstated their desire or intentions to go ahead with their own mine to put pressure on LAC during negotiations? Why would he not?