It’s a tale of two miners, two commodities and one client. Liontown Resources is gearing up to supply Tesla with lithium a year earlier than expected; BHP is shutting down nickel mines despite a long-term supply contract with Elon Musk’s carmaker.

Nickel and lithium have had a rocky ride over the past 18 months, with prices down and plenty of questions about the economics of local projects. But that masks a substantially different outlook for the major players in each commodity.