{"id":1197498,"date":"2020-07-23T05:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T10:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1030616"},"modified":"2020-07-23T05:50:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T10:50:00","slug":"tesla-offers-giant-contract-to-responsible-nickel-miners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1197498","title":{"rendered":"Tesla offers \u201cgiant contract\u201d to responsible nickel miners"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tesla
Elon Musk presenting Tesla\u2019s fully autonomous strategy in 2019. (Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson | Flickr Commons.<\/a><\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) boss Elon Musk is calling miners to produce more nickel, a key ingredient in the batteries that power his company\u2019s electric cars, and has offered a \u201cgiant contract for a long period of time\u201d to any firm able to extracted it in an efficient, environmentally sustainable manner.<\/p>\n

Musk noted on a second-quarter earnings call<\/a> that the high price of batteries continues to be one of the main hurdles for Tesla\u2019s expansion.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Tesla’s primary battery technology is based on a blend of nickel, cobalt and aluminum.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe real limitation on Tesla growth is cell production at affordable price. That\u2019s the real limit,\u201d he said, adding the company would expand its business with battery-partners Japan\u2019s Panasonic Corp., China\u2019s CATL and \u201cpossibly with others\u201d.<\/p>\n

The electric vehicles (EVs) maker\u2019s primary battery technology is based on a blend of nickel, cobalt and aluminum (NCA). However, as it shifts away from using cobalt over ethical mining and cost concerns<\/a>, Tesla is placing a greater emphasis on the need for a steady supply of nickel.<\/p>\n

A reportedly signed deal between the EVs maker and Glencore (LON: GLEN) in June has cast doubts on the company\u2019s statement that it\u2019s close to eliminating cobalt from its batteries altogether.<\/p>\n

The contract would involve supplies of 6,000 tonnes of cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo for Tesla\u2019s new Shanghai factory.  <\/p>\n

Nickel advantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Using nickel in battery cells helps to make them energy-dense. This means that those batteries can be smaller, lighter and make cars can run further on a single charge.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s call for greater nickel mining comes as prices for battery materials, particularly the silvery-white metal, have hit historic lows in recent months.<\/p>\n

Nickel dropped to a 14-month low of $10,865 a tonne CMNI3 in March, recovering since to $13,180. That\u2019s still around 30% less than the prices reached in September, when nickel traded at five-year peaks.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Musk] needs nickel, so he hopes nickel prices will go lower and lower,\u201d a Chinese nickel trader told Reuters<\/em>. \u201cPrices will not be impacted in the short-term because the market is in surplus.\u201d <\/p>\n

Supplies of battery-grade nickel, however, could run short as early as 2023, according to Bloomberg\u2019s market research division. BNEF<\/em> expects a tight balance<\/a> in the next two to three years as lithium-ion battery demand picks up.<\/p>\n

Tesla is expected to make announcements on its battery tech developments in September at its \u201cBattery Day\u201d event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boss Elon Musk has a plea for mining companies: “Please mine more nickel.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016,2849,949,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1197498"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197594,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197498\/revisions\/1197594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1197498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1197498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}