On Friday, Vale announced that they would supply Nickel to Tesla for its electric vehicle productions.
On Friday, Brazilian Miner Vale announced that it had signed a “long-term contract” with Tesla to supply the latter with nickel from its Canadian Operations.
In a press release by Vale, the company said that it would supply class 1 nickel to Tesla in the U.S. from its operations in Canada. They stated that the agreement is “in line with our strategy to increase exposure to the electric vehicle industry, leveraging our low-carbon footprint and market-leading position as North America’s largest producer of finished nickel.”
“We are pleased to have the leading electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla among our customers,” said Deshnee Naidoo, Vale’s Executive Vice President of Base Metals. “This agreement reflects a shared commitment to sustainability and shows very clearly we are the supplier-of-choice for low-carbon and high purity nickel products essential for long-range batteries.”—according to Northern Ontario Business.
According to Vale’s first Quarter reports, they had sold a total of 20,000 tonnes of Upper Class 1 nickel for the first quarter, of which 1,300 tonnes were for the electric vehicle industry.
Vale said that its Canadian operations produce “some of the lowest-carbon nickel globally.” Vale said that its nickel rounds from its Long Harbour refinery in Newfoundland & Labrador in 2020 had a verified carbon footprint of 4.4 tonnes CO2 equivalent per tonne of nickel, while pellets and powder from the Copper Cliff Nickel Refinery in Ontario had a verified footprint of 7.3 tonnes equivalent. This includes Scope 1 and 2 emissions from mining, milling and refining and upstream Scope 3 emissions from inputs.’
The company also said that they aim to provide 30% to 40% of its class 1 nickel to the electric vehicle industry.
