Ford (NYSE:F), the second largest carmaker in the United States and the fifth largest in the world, has lost 3,000 positions to fund its US$50 billion electric vehicle plans. According to a spokesperson for Ford, while the layoffs will be concentrated in the United States, some employees will be eliminated in Canada and India, notably in Ford’s businesses that manufacture classic internal combustion engine cars.

This comes on the heels of its target of producing 2 million electric vehicles annually by 2026, a huge increase from the 64,000 stated last year.

In September 2021, Ford announced the largest-ever US investment in electric vehicle production by any automobile company at the time, an US$11.4 billion commitment to build an EV factory in Tennessee and twin battery factories in Kentucky.

However, the company recently announced a series of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) investments with companies such as Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR), Ioneer (ASX:INR), and graphite miner Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) to secure the materials required to fill future EV orders.

In other lithium news, Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) has completed first pass metallurgical testing on drill core from the high-grade Salinas Lithium Project.

From simple heavy liquid separation, substantial recoveries of 78.72% lithium oxide and generation of an exceedingly high-grade concentrate (up to 65.7%) were obtained (HLS).

The ability to obtain such high recoveries utilizing a simple liberation method at a relatively coarse crush avoids the need for elaborate and expensive flotation processing to generate a high-quality, industry-standard concentrate.

Featured Image: Megapixl @Mohammedsoliman4