Salton Sea. Simbol - Tesla
Last updated 6/10/2016 at 7:35am
Despite demonstrating its lithium extraction technology was capable of producing enough raw material to attract the interest of one of its largest end users, the startup company Simbol Materials, based on the southern shore of the Salton Sea, came to an abrupt end. The company claimed they had invented an efficient method to extract and produce battery-grade lithium. Something Tesla was interested in and tried to be a part of.
With Tesla’s potential backing, the company quickly commissioned a valuation by Jefferies, a New York-based global investment bank, which estimated the startup to be worth $2.5 billion.
Tesla tried and failed to buy Simbol Materials for $325 million in TSLA stock back in 2014 by Jan. 2015, the company was out of cash, had failed to secure the $400 million it needed to build a full plant and the staff had been fired.
