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Tesla is in talks with Canadian mining company Giga Metals to help develop a large mine that will give EV makers access to low-carbon nickel for its batteries, Reuters reported.

Giga Metals' low-carbon nickel plans include turning waste from its mining operations into cement type rock using carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and using hydropower.

Giga Metals' President Martin Vydra said the company has been actively engaging with automakers for some time regarding their ability to produce carbon-neutral nickel. However, he declined to comment on possible negotiations with Tesla.

Tesla is committed to reducing its carbon footprint. The company aims to use nickel to store energy in batteries. “Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,” CEO Elon Musk said during the Q2 2020 Earnings Call.

For now, most of the world's new nickel production comes from Indonesia, where the process involves dumping mining waste into the ocean, a major environmental concern.

Giga Metals’ Turnagain mine in British Columbia has measured and indicated resources of 2.36 million tonnes of nickel and 141,000 tonnes of cobalt, according to its website.

Giga Metals plans to produce 40,000 tonnes of nickel and 2,000 tonnes of cobalt a year for 20 years. That would be enough to power thousands of electric vehicles. “The mine is in North America, so could secure supplies for Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory,” one source said, adding Canada’s environmental regulations were among the most stringent in the world. 

The Turnagain deposit, at around a billion years old, is relatively young and clean of impurities, which would mean high recoveries of nickel and cobalt. The company is working on a process that would allow the tailings, or waste rock, to absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and turn it into cement type rock, the sources said.

“Mining and processing the ore at Turnagain is likely to generate up to 28,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year,” the second source said. “The tailings could absorb up to a similar tonnage of carbon, neutralizing emissions from the mine.”

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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter

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