Ever since the company’s Battery Day event in September where Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about the need for environmentally friendly nickel, mining companies have been answering his plea.
At least two Canadian mining firms, Giga Metals and Canada Nickel Co., have approached the Musk, with one of them even doing it over his favourite channel, Twitter.
Now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is joining in after Energy Minister Andrew Parsons sent a tweet to Musk on December 12, 2020.
Hey @elonmusk! You want ethical Nickel? #NewfoundlandAndLabrador has it. We also have Cobalt, Copper, Lead and Zinc – everything you need for @Tesla lithium batteries. We’re ready for you! #NLHasWhatYouNeed @IET_GovNL pic.twitter.com/pcwxHfkLvx
— Andrew Parsons (@Andrew_Parsons1) December 12, 2020
According to Parsons, the tweet did not get lost in the Twittersphere after it was noticed by an employee at the automaker who used to live in Nova Scotia. In comments made to VOCM, Parsons said he will soon be having preliminary discussions with Tesla about a potential deal.
Despite having vast amounts of the raw materials that go into electric vehicle (EV) batteries, the province has one of the lowest rates of EV adoption in the country. It was also the only province in Canada to not have a public DC fast charger until last week when the first Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro charger opened in Holyrood.
