EV maker digs into mining as climate keeps going metal

Why is Tesla getting involved in a mine in the Pacific?

Mar 11, 2021

Climate technologies require enormous amounts of metal. I’m Ian Morse, and this is Green Rocks, a newsletter that doesn’t want dirty mining to ruin clean energy.

Weekly InQuarry

Why is Tesla getting involved in a mine in the Pacific?

RFI English @RFI_En

#French overseas territory #NewCaledonia has agreed new terms for the sale of the #Brazilian-owned Goro nickel mine. The deal gives a majority stakeholding to state entities and takes electric car maker #Tesla on as a business partner. buff.ly/3caB4kz

For a long time, the Goro mine in New Caledonia has struggled to keep up production, and the people of New Caledonia have struggled with this nickel mine on their island. Two recent independence referendums saw citizens voting by slim margins to remain a French territory as the island has been for 170 years.

In December, the mine’s owner, Brazil’s Vale, announced plans to sell the mine to other multinational giants, including Trafigura from Switzerland. Locals in New Caledonia protested and workers went on strike. The country’s opposition lawmakers resigned en masse.

Last week, a deal was made to shrink Trafigura’s share of the mine and boost local entities’ share to 51%. Tesla, after months of its CEO sounding the nickel shortage alarm, will become a technical advisor to the mine, as well as buy its nickel compounds produced for batteries. The deal also set a target to make the mine carbon neutral by 2040.

Tesla has been getting closer and closer to mining, an unprecedented tactic for a carmaker. Last September, it announced it had acquired lithium mining rights in Nevada. In backing the Goro mine, Tesla also conspicuously overlooked mines in Indonesia, which as been attempting to woo Tesla for years. Observers have said Tesla may be avoiding the potential environmental concerns there, where coal plants and ocean dumping attracted intense scrutiny over the last year.

The Green Rocks Map

Climate going metal

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The first minerals traced with blockchain were processed from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Iron ore miner Fortescue apologized to an Aboriginal group in Australia for clearing a heritage site without members of the group present.
Freeport is planning to expand its copper mines in the US, encouraged by Biden’s electrification plans.
In 2020, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre recorded 604 attacks on defenders working on business-related human rights issues. Mining was the sector that saw the most attacks, then agribusiness.
Glencore’s planned expansion at a zinc and lead mine threatens several sacred Aboriginal sites, according to the local oversight authority.
Indonesia says it plans to set up a state-owned battery production firm by June.
Deep-sea miner DeepGreen plans to go public through a partner company.
A legal challenge to the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada says the the EPA and state wildlife officials warned the plans don’t comply with laws protecting water and wildlife.