Tesla is one of the worldwide leaders in electric vehicles and a key ingredient in any EV is the battery used to power it, now a proposed mine near Duluth will play a major part in their construction.

Talon Metals' Tamarack mine location located about 55 miles from Duluth signed a deal worth about $1.5 billion with Tesla yesterday that will see the automaker buying about half of the mine's total projected output. That would be about 75,000 metric tons of nickel concentrate over six years once the mine is open.

As part of the contract, Talon Metals must make a reasonable effort to get the mine operational by January 1st, 2026. That date could be extended a year, but after that, “Tesla has a right to terminate the agreement and Talon may elect to sell to other parties,” according to Mining.com.

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Drew Baglino, SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla says, "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."

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The Tamarack mine project is the only one of its kind in the United States, Tesla has previously made similar deals with mines in Australia and New Caledonia. Both those deals combined are smaller than this deal in terms of tonnage provided.

Tesla will take the nickel concentrate and further refine it to be used in the production of its lithium-ion batteries that are used to power the cars, and the upcoming Telsa Cyber Truck.

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