Chinese Nickel Deal - Could we be next?3 Sep 2020 16:34
An interesting article.....
https://www.amm.com/Article/3949491/Nonferrous/Chinese-firm-lands-battery-grade-Ni-Co-supply-deal.html
Chinese firm lands battery-grade Ni, Co supply deal
Chinese battery materials producer GEM has signed an eight-year nickel and cobalt supply contract with Indonesia's Halamahera Persada Lygend (HPAL), starting from 2021.
This procurement scheme, seen by Fastmarkets, specifies eight-year totals for battery-grade nickel and cobalt raw materials, with nickel content totaling no less than 74,400 tonnes and no more than 178,560 tonnes and cobalt content at a minimum of 9,296 tonnes and no more than 22,320 tonnes.
The per-year breakdown for nickel amounts to 9,300-22,320 tonnes (nickel contained), while the annual total for cobalt by-products is 1,162- 2,790 tonnes (cobalt contained).
“With the booming of global [electric vehicle, or EV] market, high-nickel and low-cobalt batteries will become the trend... [This] agreement will help us secure nickel raw materials to meet our growing [needs],” GEM said in a filing to Shenzhen Stock Exchange on September 2.
HPAL - a joint venture between China's Ningbo Lygend Resources & Technology Co and Indonesia's Harita Group - has a planned annual output of 240,000 tonnes of nickel sulfate and 30,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate products in Indonesia.
The EV boom has sparked growing investor optimism for more nickel consumption and, in July, the United States EV producer Tesla’s chief executive officer, Elon Musk, called for a ramp-up in global nickel mining to match his company’s production ambitions.