Electric Vehicle News

Tesla to buy nickel from Talon Metals mine in Minnesota

Talon Nickel, a US subsidiary of Canada-based Talon Metals (TSX: TLO), has secured an agreement with Tesla to supply nickel concentrate from its Tamarack Nickel Project, a joint venture with mining giant Rio Tinto, in Aitkin County, Minnesota.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tesla has committed to purchase 75,000 metric tons (165 million lbs) of nickel concentrate over 6 years, and has a preferential right to negotiate for the purchase of more.

Talon aims to achieve commercial production at the site by 2026.

Talon and Tesla also hope to extract valuable by-products, such as iron and cobalt, from the nickel concentrate. It’s not clear where Tesla will refine the nickel concentrate—there is currently no nickel refinery in the US.

Nickel is a key raw material for cathodes, and in 2020, Elon Musk appealed to the mining industry to produce more nickel “in an environmentally sensitive way.” He also noted that almost no nickel was being produced in the US, a state of affairs that he called “objectively very lame.”

Tesla has signed deals with producer BHP to procure nickel from Australia, and from New Caledonia. Indonesia is the world’s largest nickel producer, but mines there tend to employ energy-intensive technology and harmful waste disposal practices.

Talon Metals aims to extract nickel with a minimal environmental footprint. It plans to test a new technology that will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and chemically bind it with mining waste. If the process is successful, Talon could conceivably market its nickel as carbon-neutral.

“This agreement is the start of an innovative partnership between Tesla and Talon for the responsible production of battery materials directly from the mine to the battery cathode,” said Talon CEO Henri van Rooyen. “Talon is committed to meeting the highest standards of responsible production that is fully traceable and that has the lowest embedded CO2 footprint in the industry.”

“The Talon team has taken an innovative approach to the discovery, development and production of battery materials, including to permanently store carbon as part of mine operations and the investigation of the novel extraction of battery materials,” said Drew Baglino, SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla. “Responsible sourcing of battery materials has long been a focus for Tesla, and this project has the promise to accelerate the production of sustainable energy products in North America.”

WirelessCar launches Smart EV Routing

WirelessCar, a provider of digital services for connected vehicles, has launched Smart EV Routing, a product designed to enable EV drivers to optimize their long-distance journeys. WirelessCar’s Smart EV Routing uses real-time dynamic vehicle data combined with intelligent routing algorithms to offer a sophisticated route planner.

WirelessCar’s Smart EV Routing uses an array of input parameters, including real-time vehicle telemetry and environmental data, which is combined with intelligent routing algorithms in order to plan the best possible route for an EV journey. Energy consumption factors include outside temperature and weather conditions, road conditions and elevation, driving style and vehicle weight. Drivers can select from several parameters to create their optimal routing.

WirelessCar works directly with auto manufacturers to provide specially-tailored services and integrations. OEMs can use their preferred charging networks and set recommended default parameters.

Smart EV Routing is cloud-based, scalable, and content provider-agnostic—OEMs can use the content providers of their choice for visual maps and charging points. The system is designed to deliver a seamless, unified experience in both the vehicle’s infotainment system and the driver’s mobile device. Routing guidance is based on continuously updated dynamic vehicle data, so drivers know when they need to charge and for how long.

“Our Smart EV Routing tool ensures that drivers of electric vehicles have all the information they need to make their journey as smooth, efficient and safe as possible,” said Martin Rosell, CEO of WirelessCar. “We’re empowering both OEMs and EV owners with the information they need to be confident on long-distance journeys. WirelessCar has more than 20 years of hands-on experience developing, delivering and operating secure digital solutions and products for connected cars.”

The Metals Company hopes to extract battery metals from the sea floor

As the world’s appetite for raw materials grows, interest in polymetallic nodules—nuggets of nickel, cobalt, manganese and other in-demand metals found on the sea floor—is exploding. Several companies are pursuing plans to extract the mysterious lumps, which Gerard Barron, the CEO of seabed-mining firm The Metals Company, calls “a battery in a rock.”

Barron’s company holds exploration rights to three polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean. He sees the nodules as a guilt-free source of key materials that are used in EV batteries and other clean-tech applications. Mining them, he says, would be “as simple as vacuuming golf balls off a putting green.” No child labor, no China.

Others are not so sure that extracting metals from one of the least-explored and least-understood ecosystems on Earth is a good idea. “If this goes wrong, it could trigger a series of unintended consequences that messes with ocean stability, ultimately affecting life everywhere on Earth,” Pippa Howard, Director of Fauna and Flora International, told Time, adding that the nodules are a key part of a biome roughly the size of the Amazon rain forest. “They’ve got living ecosystems on them. Taking those nodules and then using them to make batteries is like making cement out of coral reefs.”

Of course, if it were economically feasible to make cement from coral, the world’s reefs would probably have been wiped out years ago, and plans to mine the deep-sea nodules appears to be pretty well advanced. The deep sea is regulated by the International Seabed Authority, an intergovernmental body with 168 members. The nations closest to the action are small island nations such as Tuvalu, which may be happy to take advantage of the economic opportunities mining presents.

At the very least, environmental studies should be performed before the deep-sea mining proceeds,  and The Metals Company has conducted several research campaigns in the area. The latest—dubbed Environmental Expedition 5E—was “a targeted sampling campaign of both benthic and pelagic fauna with wider investigations to characterize ecosystem function on the abyssal seafloor.”

The goal of the six-week expedition was “to develop an environmental baseline of the company’s proposed operating environment…and characterize the potential impacts of its proposed nodule collection operations.” It included researchers from several marine science institutions, including the UK National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science & Marine Technology, Natural History Museum (London), Heriot-Watt University and the University of Gothenburg, who deployed a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) and an array of seafloor landers.

Researchers from the NOC conducted visual observations of over 30 square kilometers of seafloor, and sampled benthic macro and megafauna, in order to focus on species of particular scientific interest.

“With five research campaigns under our belts in the last twelve months, the all-star research teams we’ve brought together are helping build a high-resolution picture of the potential impacts of collecting nodules,” said Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron. “This data will enable our engineering and project teams to optimize our activities for low impact and ensure that we lift the nodules to the surface with the lightest possible touch.”