Font size 1 Favorite share According to foreign media reports, Tesla's new lithium refinery in Texas has officially begun operations, which has been more than a year since it broke ground.

On December 14, Tesla North America announced on social media X that the team had for the first time fed raw materials into kilns at its lithium refinery in Robstown. Located just outside Corpus Christi, the plant is the first large-scale battery-grade lithium refinery in the United States and Tesla's first industrial application of the acid-free lithium refining process.

"This investment is critical to our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy and reflects our efforts to aggressively increase the supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in North America," Tesla said on X. After production, the refinery is expected to produce about 50GWh of battery-grade lithium per year.

Image credit: Tesla

In the background of the image that accompanied the announcement, a Tesla Cybercab appears. In October this year, Tesla officially released the two-seat autonomous taxi.

Tesla is currently hiring for the Robstown, Texas, plant and has posted job postings on the company's jobs page.

At the time of the operation of the Tesla lithium refinery, the United States and other North American and European markets are also looking to reduce their dependence on China for mineral processing of electric vehicle batteries. While more lithium refineries are planned in the United States, and several lithium mines are already open or planned, the plant marks a major step toward localizing the production of electric vehicle batteries in the United States.

As reported in October, China accounts for about two-thirds of global production of lithium chemicals, which are used in electric car batteries, mobile phones, computers and many other consumer electronics.