BHP to supply nickel to Tesla from Australia

Global miner BHP Group said on Thursday it has signed a nickel supply agreement with Tesla Inc and will work with the electric carmaker on lowering carbon emissions in the battery supply chain. Tesla, which already sources over a third of its nickel from Australia, said in June it expects to spend more than $1 billion a year on battery raw materials from the country.

Global miner BHP Group said on Thursday it has signed a nickel supply agreement with Tesla Inc and will work with the electric carmaker on lowering carbon emissions in the battery supply chain.

Tesla, which already sources over a third of its nickel from Australia, said in June it expects to spend more than $1 billion a year on battery raw materials from the country. The supply agreement comes after the new U.S. administration's policy of relying on allies for bulk of the metals needed to build electric vehicles.

BHP said the metal will be supplied from its Nickel West project in Western Australia. Nickel is a key metal used in Tesla's car batteries.

The two companies will also be looking at end-to-end raw material tracing using blockchain, while also working on energy storage solutions.