MELBOURNE: BHP Group Ltd said on Monday it had agreed to supply nickel sulphate from Western Australia that would be used by Japanese auto major Toyota Corp.
The world's biggest miner has agreed to sell nickel to a major Japanese battery maker that is a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corp and Panasonic Corp, called Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, it said in a statement.
It reached a deal to supply nickel to Tesla Inc. in July, when it also said it would work with the electric carmaker on lowering carbon emissions in the battery supply chain.
The miner last week commercially produced its first batch of nickel sulphate crystals at its Nickel West operations in Kwinana, south of Perth, as it aims to tap booming demand from electric vehicle makers.
As part of an agreement with Prime Planet and also Toyota Tsusho, the automaker's metals trading arm, the parties aim to make the Japanese battery supply chain more sustainable by lowering carbon emissions, as well as boosting transparency around raw materials sourcing and human rights reporting.
They will also explore the possibility of recycling battery scrap and used batteries at Nickel West for further processing and production of nickel bearing products, they said in a statement.
"This partnership has great potential to secure competitive raw materials for the EV value chains as well as to create battery material recycling loops, which is crucial for EV development in the future," said Masaharu Katayama, chief operating officer of metals at Toyota Tsusho.
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