The mining company owned by Australia’s richest man has snapped up the battery and technology arm of the Williams Formula One racing group for £164million.

Fortescue Metals will buy the unit, which is based in the Oxfordshire town of Wantage, to help it reach its green targets.

One of the first projects to be developed will be a battery-powered freight train.

Green targets: Andrew Forrest (pictured), founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals, has snapped up the battery and technology arm of the Williams Formula One for £164m

Green targets: Andrew Forrest (pictured), founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals, has snapped up the battery and technology arm of the Williams Formula One for £164m

Green targets: Andrew Forrest (pictured), founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals, has snapped up the battery and technology arm of the Williams Formula One for £164m

It will also use the technology to adapt other heavy industrial equipment and haulage trucks. 

Fortescue – which is buying the Williams division from EMK Capital and Williams Grand Prix Engineering – is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Andrew Forrest, founder and chairman of Fortescue with a £13billion fortune, said the company had ‘scoured the world for battery technology’.

He added: ‘It’s great to win a Formula One race but we’re all in a race against climate change.’

Forrest said it will integrate Williams Advanced Engineering into its clean energy unit, but keep its base in Oxfordshire.

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