If you looked up the definition of “visionary entrepreneur” in the dictionary, chances are you’d stumble over Elon Musk’s name.  Perhaps like no other CEO today, Tesla’s innovator-in-chief has had his finger on the pulse of time, and has arguably “revolutionized many industries.”

And while he continues his “mission is to help save Earth for humanity through sustainable transportation, and colonize Mars in case that doesn’t work,” he is a visionary rooted in reality — more specifically, the reality of resources.

Earlier this week, Musk said that his company might make forays into the mining business in its quest to to ensure that Tesla is able to produce sufficient amounts of batteries for its future vehicle fleet. 

The Business Standard quotes him as saying: 

“There’s not much point in adding product complexity if we don’t have enough batteries. (…) We might get into the mining business. I don’t know. (…)We’ll do whatever we have to to ensure that we can scale at the fastest rate possible.” 

We have long argued that “[y]ou need ‘stuff’ to make ‘stuff,’” and that “[i]t’s time to remind ourselves that life as we know it is made possible by the inventive use of metals and minerals. Smart phones, the Cloud, the Internet: These things may seem to work by magic, but quite often the backbone of high-tech is mineral and metal, not fairy dust.”