Musk nickel message strikes a chord with industry

A plea this week from Tesla boss Elon Musk for mining companies to get out and produce nickel is music to the ears of Australian Mines managing director Benjamin Bell. It's not that the industry has been unaware of nickel's importance as the electrical vehicle and battery storage market grows. "It's just good now that the car manufacturers are understanding too and publicly stating it," Mr Bell said. The independent validation coming from such comments was just what the industry needed, he said. "It gets the message across to the banks and the other financial institutions. Elon sees a long-term need for nickel, and so therefore the forecast for nickel pricing probably isn't going to decrease anytime soon," Mr Bell said. Australian Mines aims to be in production in 2023 at its Sconi cobalt-nickel-scandium project near Greenvale in North Queensland. The project will feature a 2Mtpa ore processing plant producing an estimated 7000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate and 46,800 tonnes of nickel sulphate per year over the mine’s initial 30-year life. In a Tesla second quarter earnings call Mr Musk stated: “I’d just like to emphasise, any mining companies out there, please mine more nickel, OK. Wherever you are in the world, please mine more nickel. And don’t wait for nickel to go back to some long, some high point that you experienced some five years ago or whatever. Go for efficient, you know, environmentally friendly, nickel mining at high volume. Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally friendly way." Previous trial mining at the Sconi site in North Queensland. But the mining industry can't turn on the tap so quickly. Mr Bell said it would to five to seven years to bring a new nickel mine into production taking into account stages such as permitting and feasibility work. "Everyone expects a shortfall in that 2023 to 2025 period, quite a significant shortfall of nickel," Mr Bell said. "From the Sconi project, for every tonne of cobalt we punch out, we put seven tonnes of nickel out there. So we're predominantly a nickel mine. It's just that from a cashflow point of view, it's probably 50-50 between nickel and cobalt. But in terms of output, it's about seven times more nickel." Australian company Clean TeQ is developing the Sunrise Battery Materials Complex in New South Wales, which promises to be a large-scale supplier of nickel, cobalt and scandium. Chief executive officer Sam Riggall recently wrote an open letter to car manufacturers (check it out HERE) counseling them that cooperation with miners was required to secure the materials for the electric vehicle revolution. “Something more than Procurement 101 is required," Mr Riggall said. "As unpalatable as it may sound, the only real way to reliably secure the massive quantities of raw materials you each need, at a predictable and manageable cost, is to invest upstream to build the foundations of your supply chain.” The proposed Sunrise Battery Materials Complex in New South Wales.

Musk nickel message strikes a chord with industry

Industry Queensland

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