Don’t underestimate lithium-ion battery demand for nickel
The focus on lithium-ion batteries seems to reflect supply and demand of lithium and cobalt but it would be very wrong not to include nickel.
The focus on lithium-ion batteries seems to reflect supply and demand of lithium and cobalt but it would be very wrong not to include nickel.
A unit of the company, Black Mountain Metals LLP, will buy the Lanfranchi nickel project in the state of Western Australia for $15.1 million from Panoramic Resources.
Nickel, which recently hit its lowest since December, could climb as high as $16,000 a tonne by the end of 2018 and $18,000 a year later.
The original sale of the stake was disputed in a London court by aluminium producer Rusal, which owns a stake in Nornickel.
The world used almost 2.2 million tonnes of nickel last year. Around two thirds of that metal was absorbed by the stainless steel industry.
Expectations of a boom in demand for electric vehicles are leading investors and battery makers to stockpile nickel and helping to fuel a spike in global prices of the metal.
Privately held Dundas Mining is restarting its Avebury nickel mine in Tasmania early next year and Swiss trading house Transamine has secured the offtake.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) launched on Wednesday a consultation to trial in the first quarter of next year the use of its electronic system to determine closing prices of the three-month nickel contract instead of open outcry.
Locking in supplies of key battery raw materials lithium and cobalt has been a headache for electric car manufacturers, but these days it’s the supply of nickel and graphite that’s keeping them up at night.
The Philippines is the world's No.2 nickel ore supplier after Indonesia, shipping the bulk of its output to top buyer China.