Australia’s Piedmont signs lithium ore supply deal with Tesla, shares surge
(Reuters) – Piedmont Lithium <PLL.AX> on Monday said it signed a five-year deal with Tesla Inc <TSLA.O> to supply high-purity lithium ore mineral to the U.S. electrical carmaker, prompting an 83% surge throughout the Australian lithium miner’s shares.
The preliminary five-year settlement implies that Piedmont will supply a number of third of its deliberate 160,000-tonnes-per-year spodumene focus produce from its deposits in North Carolina. Both corporations have an chance to extend the deal for a further 5 years.
Shares of the Australian miner touched their highest since May 2007.
The deal comes on the heels of Tesla’s “Battery Day” presentation closing week when Chief Executive Elon Musk shared his imaginative and prescient of novel, proprietary Tesla batteries, following which Tesla stock misplaced larger than $30 billion in market price.
Piedmont said in an announcement that the settlement …