Tesla to buy more than $1 BLN of Australian battery minerals a year

Tesla said that it expects to spend more than $1 billion a year on battery raw materials from Australia given the country’s reliable mining industry and responsible production practices. Robyn Denholm, chair of the U.S. carmaker, said that Australia, which is rich in minerals used for batteries like lithium and nickel, is poised to benefit as developing supply chains for electric vehicle batteries.

Denholm, an Australian, told a Minerals Council of Australia event said that they expect their spend on Australian minerals to increase to more than $1 billion per annum for the next few years. Tesla already sources three quarters of its lithium feedstock from Australia and over a third of its nickel.

Australian mining companies do have a good reputation, great expertise, professionalism and are preferred by manufacturers who are increasingly concerned about meeting both today’s and the future’s ESG requirements.

Under the U.S. President Joe Biden’s Administration, the comments are in line with new policy. The U.S. will then focus on processing those metals domestically into battery parts. Australia, Canada and Brazil, are among the countries expected to benefit. Tesla also supplies batteries to Australia. This is to store energy captured from rooftop solar panels, which shore up reliability in its energy network. Australia has the world’s highest per capita density of rooftop solar panels.